100,000 Haitians in urgent need of food, UN lacks funds
The UN World Food Program (WFP) says it won’t be able to provide assistance to one-hundred thousand people who are in urgent need of assistance in Haiti, unless it receives immediate funding.
Jean-Martin Bauer, the agency’s director for Haiti, said on Monday the WFP is facing a 25% cut as a record 4.9 million people in Haiti need help with finding food.
“These cuts could not come at a worse time, as Haitians face a multi-layered humanitarian crisis, their lives and livelihoods upended by violence, insecurity, economic turmoil and climate shocks,” he said.
He warned that the WFP’s Haiti response plan is only 16% funded, and that it won’t be able to provide food to a total of 750,000 Haitians if it doesn’t secure $121 million through the end of the year.
“Unless we receive immediate funding, further devastating cuts cannot be ruled out,” Bauer said.
The agency warned formerly that nearly five million people are struggling to eat every day in the Caribbean country, with a population of nearly 11 million.
This means that households face large food consumption gaps resulting in acute malnutrition and excess mortality.
More than 115,000 children younger than five are expected to struggle with malnutrition this year, a 30% surge compared with last year, according to the UN agency.
So far this year, the UN agency has provided more than 450,000 school children with hot meals, often the only food they receive in a day.
Per capita, the number of Haitians facing emergency-level food insecurity is the second highest in the world.
According to a report released by the WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in May, acute food insecurity is set to increase in magnitude and severity in 18 hunger “hotspots” around the world. Burkina Faso and Mali, Sudan, and Haiti have been elevated to the highest concern levels, it warned.
Under the 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan, FAO is appealing for $61.7 million to assist 700,000 people to improve their access to food.
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