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STORY: WFP / HAITI
TRT: 3:06
SOURCE: WFP
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WFP ON SCREEN
LANGAUGE: CREOLO / ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE : 17-30 MAY 2024, PORT AU PRINCE
15 MAY 2024, PORT AU PRINCE
1.Various shots, drone shot, road blocks, streets of Port au Prince
Attacks involving armed gangs that started in February/March have sparked an escalation in violence and protest. International flights were cancelled following attacks at the airport and ports are similarly inaccessible while internet and phone connectivity, and power outages pose a major challenge. Supply chains for food into the city have been disrupted creating a surge in food insecurity.
25 MAY 2024, LYCÉE JEAN MARY VINCENT, PORT AU PRINCE
2.Various shots, displaced People living in a school
The violence has forced 362,000 people to flee their homes. Almost half the sites that are sheltering displaced people in Port au Prince are schools. According to UNICEF, 900 schools in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan zone and in the Artibonite department have been closed since July last year due to the insecurity linked to armed group violence, affecting the education of 200,000 students.
22 MAY 2024, PORT AU PRINCE
3. SOUNDBITE (Creolo) Heugenie Pierre Charles,70 years old, sold vegetables at a stall on the street until it was destroyed during violence:
“Sometimes I’m very hungry, so I ask people a bite when I see them eating. But they humiliate me. I’ve never had to beg, I always managed to run my business. It really hurts. I had my work before, but the gangs forced me out. And now I'm living in this situation that makes me cry. I'm here on this camp for displaced people. I only had a boiler left. Unfortunately, it was stolen. Now I have nothing. It was with this boiler that I made tea and food.”
30 MAY 2024, PORT AU PRINCE
4. Various shots, WFP Plane Unloading
A WFP-chartered cargo plane, transporting medical supplies for partner organizations was the first UN humanitarian cargo flight to land in Port-au-Prince since the beginning of the current crisis. This development comes approximately two weeks after resumption of United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) passenger flights to the airport in the Haitian capital, which was closed in early March 2024 due to insecurity
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Jean-Martin Bauer, WFP Haiti Country Director:
“The roads in and out of Port au Prince are controlled by armed groups. The port has been closed for a long time. It was looted and the airport was closed. So effectively, Port au Prince for the past few months has been an island. So it's really important for WFP and other humanitarians to be able to bring supplies into the city, to run essential programs. So the essential services that people rely on, be it healthcare, water and sanitation, food, they require the free movement of goods and people, and right now we just haven't had that. So what we're doing with this flight is reopening that door and ensuring that vital supplies come in to allow these essential services to function.”
17 MAY 2024, CITE SOLIEL
6. Various shots, WFP Food Distribution in Cite Soleil
Cite Soleil one of the most vulnerable, insecure and hard-to-reach neighborhoods of the capital. Despite the challenges, over a two-week period in May, 615 metric tons of rice, beans, and vegetable oil were distributed to nearly 93,000 people in Cité Soleil, including breastfeeding mothers and children, who had been cut off from humanitarian assistance due to the fresh wave of violence which began three months ago. It was in Cite Soleil at the end of 2022, that famine was reported for the first time ever in Haiti. According to the March IPC assessment, almost 5 million people – nearly half the population of Haiti - are facing acute food insecurity, including 1.64 million people facing “emergency” (IPC phase 4) levels. This is the highest since the 2010 earthquake.
18 MAY 2024, LYCEE JEAN MARIE VINCENT DE CARRADEUX, PORT AU PRINCE
7. Various shots, WFP Hot Meals
Cooking WFP provided hot meals for 2,232 internally displaced people living in a school.
Despite ongoing unrest and attacks by armed groups in Haiti, WFP has been ramping up operations in Port-au-Prince, assisting communities affected by violence. Over 93,000 people were assisted in May through a large-scale food distribution in Cité Soleil, one of the most vulnerable, insecure and hard-to-reach neighbourhoods of the capital.
Residents of Cité Soleil face emergency levels of hunger (IPC Phase 4), according to the latest IPC. Humanitarian access had been intermittent since violence erupted in the city in March.
Since March, WFP’s local partners have been operating in Cité Soleil with limited capacity.
WFP’s latest response will allow them to restore full capacity, including school meals.
Elsewhere in Port-au-Prince, WFP continues to assist displaced people. In late May, WFP reached the milestone of one million hot meals served to over 108,000 internally displaced people in 87 sites since the beginning of the year.
In 2024, WFP has assisted one million people across its programs country-wide, including school meals, social protection, emergencies, and resilience activities.
Ports and the airport in Port-au-Prince have been hard-hit by the volatile security situation. Sustained humanitarian access and the reopening of vital supply routes is essential to prevent more people from slipping deeper into hunger. More needs to be done to allow the arrival and movement of critical supplies by air and sea – including food.
On 30 May, for the first time in three months, WFP was able to land a cargo plane at the international airport of Port-au-Prince, following the resumption of the UNHAS service to the airport in mid-May. While a promising first step, these improvements need to be extended to the ports. The airbridge WFP operates from Panama to Cap Haitien continues to transport life-saving supplies into Haiti.
WFP calls for unimpeded and continuous access to allow humanitarian responders to continue operating across the country, including hot meal distributions in Port-au-Prince.
WFP’s efforts to decentralize its supply chain by prioritizing local purchases have allowed it to continue delivering food to vulnerable people at a time when access has been very limited.
Security measures in Haiti must be matched by an equally robust humanitarian response. Haiti needs more than boots on the ground to build a peaceful and prosperous future for its people; the country will never be at peace when nearly half its population is starving.
World leaders must prioritize humanitarian assistance alongside security measures. A solution to this crisis is urgently needed.
There is no simple solution to the current crisis. Urgent humanitarian assistance must be coupled with long-term investments that help address the structural root causes of hunger and malnutrition, while helping to repair the country’s broken food systems and to build lasting peace and security.
With half the population facing acute hunger, WFP is facing a funding gap of US$ 76.7 million through November.
IN NUMBERS
- Haitians projected to face acute hunger (IPC3+) March 2024 – June 2024 4.97 million
- 277,000 children 6 to 59 months facing or expected to face acute malnutrition in 2024
- 7.2percent of children under 5 suffering global acute malnutrition
- 23 percent of children under 5 affected by stunting
- WFP aims to assist 2.4 million people in 2024
- US$ 76.7m WFP funding are needed in Haiti through November 2024
HUMANITARIAN SITUATION
According to the March IPC assessment, almost 5 million people – nearly half the population - are facing acute food insecurity, including 1.64 million people facing “emergency” (IPC phase 4) levels. This is the highest since the 2010 earthquake. Haiti has seen a steady rise in hunger in recent years, with the prevalence of acute food insecurity rising from 35 percent in 2019 to nearly 50 percent in 2024.
Among the areas most severely affected is the Artibonite valley – the country’s breadbasket – where armed groups have taken over farmland and stolen harvested crops. Also of concern are the West department, rural parts of the Grand’Anse department in the South, and several poor neighbourhoods of the capital, including Croix des Bouquets and Cité Soleil – which saw pockets of Catastrophic hunger (IPC Phase 5) in late 2022.
The persistently high levels of acute food insecurity are being driven by violence, an economic slowdown, supply chain disruptions and erratic rainfall.
Events since March have degraded food insecurity even further – people with the lowest food consumption rose from 32 percent to 41 percent. More than two in three households saw significant income drops, and seven in ten departments reported higher food prices than in January.
The state of child nutrition in Haiti is worsening. The first ever IPC acute malnutrition analysis of Haiti found that nearly 277,000 children aged 6 to 59 months are facing or expected to face acute malnutrition between December 2023 and November 2024, including 125,000 children who are severely malnourished.
Food prices are skyrocketing, driving affordable meals out of reach for millions of families. According to a WFP market analysis, compared to March last year, the price of maize increased by 42 percent, and of rice by 35 percent. Since January 2024, the price of rice increased by 30 percent and of maize by 17 percent.
The number of victims of violence in Haiti has skyrocketed in 2024 - January to March saw more than triple the number of killings (1,660 nationwide) than the same period last year. The number of displaced people has risen to over 362,000 (IOM) since the start of 2024.
WFP OPERATIONS (SINCE START OF THIS CRISIS IN MARCH 2024):
The two-week response in Cité Soleil in May enabled the distribution of 615 mt of rice, beans and vegetable oil to 93,000 people, including breastfeeding women and children who were experiencing a worsening food security situation in the neighbourhood.
Since the beginning of March, insecurity has caused delays in food distributions in the capital. In response, WFP is prioritizing cash transfers and has managed to purchase an additional 70 mt of local sorghum, allowing distributions to continue. However, these alternatives are not enough to sustain the humanitarian response in the long-term.
WFP has assisted over 108,000 displaced people with hot meals so far this year. Those who complete the cycle of hot-meal assistance will start receiving cash transfers. This humanitarian response also includes a nutrition top-up for households with pregnant women or children under five.
This transition aims to allow vulnerable people to vary their diet, match nutritional requirements for pregnant women and young children, while injecting money into the local economy. At the end of the cycle of cash assistance, IOM and WFP will be teaming up to help displaced people be relocated to other departments, providing cash for transportation and an additional cash transfer of US$ 120 on arrival.
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