WFP warns 1.3 million people in Haiti face food emergency amid increasing inflation

Hunger in Haiti could rise amid increasing inflation, high costs of food and fuel, and soaring violence, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has warned.

Jean-Martin Bauer, WFP Country Director Haiti, said in an interview with The Associated Press that some 1.3 million people are facing emergency food insecurity.

"1.3 million people in Haiti are what we call stage four face for food insecurity. That's the emergency. That is the last phase before phase five, which is the most extreme phase of food security, what we call famine. Haiti has 1.3 million people in an emergency, so just before famine," said Jean-Martin Bauer, WFP Country Director Haiti.

Exacerbating the situation is the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, soaring food and energy prices that climbed in the weeks following Russia's war in Ukraine, and gang violence in Haiti.

Last month, a United Nations special envoy warned that Haiti's National Police needs immediate help to fight crime and violence because insecurity is rapidly deteriorating.

Gang domination over territory has grown since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse a year ago when he was shot at his home on July 7 and they control highways leading north and south from the capital.

In May alone, more than 200 killings and 198 abductions were reported in the country of more than 11 million people, which has only 12,800 active police officers.

Local residents such as Christina Calixte had to flee her home in early June.

"I was pregnant, it was Sunday morning, around 5 am. I heard gunshots, many gunshots. I was scared I would be hit by a bullet so I lay down under the bed, even though I was pregnant. That Sunday they spent the whole day shooting. I was hungry and I couldn't go out, I couldn't even buy water to drink," said the  mother who has been living in the Tabarre Town hall.

Meanwhile groups such as the World Food Program have been providing assistance to those most in need