Haiti: 5 million people are “extremely food insecure" | WFP | UN Press Conference

Jean-Martin Bauer, Country Director for the World Food Programme (WFP) in Haiti said that according to the Haitian government, 5 million people in the country are “extremely food insecure, of which 1.6 million are classified as facing emergency food insecurity conditions.”

He added, “These are the highest numbers we've had since the 2010 earthquake.”

Briefing journalists virtually today (5 Jun) from Port-au-Prince on the situation in Haiti, Bauer said, “We have been able to provide over a million hot meals to people on the move in Haiti since the start of the year. We're very proud of having been able to help more than 100,000 people.”

He also said, “Humanitarians have been trying to do their best to respond to the crises, the hot meals program that WFP is running is one of the examples of that. Right now, we've been able to use the stocks that we placed and positioned in Port-au-Prince ahead of the crisis, but those are running low. We are optimistic that with the reopening of the port we'll be able to import commodities from outside and bring them to Port-au-Prince to sustain these programs, but the level of stocks for other humanitarian actors have been quite low and we know that the health sector has been quite affected by the low stocks available in Port-au-Prince.”

He continued, “There's been a large-scale displacement. The last time we had a number from the International Office of Migration over 360,000 Haitians had to leave their homes, over 100,000 of them left Port-au-Prince in the month of March alone. So, there's been an exodus out of the capital city affecting especially in the south of the country - a place with very limited infrastructure. This is making the crisis here even worse.”

He said, “There are some good news, we have been able to reach Cité Soleil one of the most…low accessible parts of Port-au-Prince; we were able to bring rations to 93,000 people just in the month of May; we were recently able to bring in a cargo flight carrying medical items in the airport of Port-au-Prince that was closed for such a long period of time, bringing vital, vital medical supplies to partners like UNICEF and WHO.”

He stressed, “But there's a sense of crisis still. We are at the start of June; we know that this is the beginning of what's forecast to be a very active hurricane season. This is when humanitarians need to be ready to act, need to be ready to support Haiti at a time of increased risk. We also have other factors that we're looking quite closely at, which include the impact of this ongoing displacement. We know that foot prices in Port-au-Prince have increased by 27 percent since January, and we also have incomes that are very, very low in this city because of the impacts of violence on people.”

He concluded, “We need to continue having Haiti in the focus, in the spotlight. We know that in some parts of the world that just hasn't been enough attention on Haiti because we're looking at other crises, we're looking elsewhere. But the crisis in Haiti is here, is now, and it deserves a response.”