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UN PhotoWFP / HAITI HUNGER EMERGENCY LEVELS
STORY: WFP / HAITI HUNGER EMERGENCY LEVELS
TRT: 06:44
SOURCE: WFP
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WFP ON SCREEN
LANGUAGES: CREOLE / ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: PLEASE SEE SHOTLIST FOR DETAILS
20 SEPTEMBER 2024, PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI
1 Aerial shots, Port-au-Prince:
Since 2021, attacks and violence by armed gangs across the country have skyrocketed. In 2023, the homicide rate had tripled, kidnapping more than quadrupled and rape increased 7-fold since the violence began.
25 MAY 2024, PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI
2. Drone shots, road blocks
3. Various shots, streets of Port-au-Prince:
In February 2024, armed gangs seized control of police stations, opened fire on the Port-au-Prince airport and stormed Haiti’s two biggest prisons, freeing more than 4,000 inmates. This sparked a new escalation in violence, protest and displacement. Haiti’s main international airport in Port au Princes airport was closed for 3 months and supply chains that brought food into the city were disrupted creating a surge in food insecurity.
20 SEPTEMBER 2024, PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI
4. Various shots, streets scenes
16 SEPTEMBER 2024, CITE SOLEIL – PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI
5. Various shots, Minère Marc with her children:
Port au Prince has been carved up into fiefdoms controlled by violent gangs. Rape, murder and extreme hunger has forced many residents to flee. Those who remain behind struggle to feed their families. Minere Marc, lives in an area called “Brooklyn” run by Ti Gabriel. Minere’s husband killed when he was caught in the crossfire of a battle between. She struggles, alone, to feed her 6 children and 2 grandchildren.
6. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Minère Marc pointing to her children:
“This one will go to school. This one will go to school. This one will go to school.”
7. Various shots, Minère Marc straightening up her house
8. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Minère Marc:
“My roof is leaking I have to use a bucket when it rains, so me and my family can sleep.”
9. Close up, Minère foot
10. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Minère Marc:
“I was shot in the foot but thank God it wasn’t a direct hit. I was lucky. I had to take a loan from a loanshark. When you cannot pay, they come threaten you. I had to sell my furniture to be able to repay the loan. I’ve sold chairs and beds to meet our needs and to buy food. See those chairs over there? I was going to sell them so I could get something to eat for my children. We need to live.”
11. Various shots, Cite Soliel / Port au Prince, Haiti
18 SEPTEMBER 2024, CITE SOLEIL / PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI
12. Various shots, Cite Soleil / Port au Prince :
Just 2 KM from “Brooklyn” a rival gang led by “Obama” run a swamp covered neighborhood called Pierre6. Many people have fled but those who haven’t been able to leave or have no place to go live in homes that frequently flood and struggle to feed their families.
13. Various shots, WFP food distribution:
WFP has negotiated access to bring rice, oil and beans to 300 families with school children in Pierre6 and reached 105,000 people across many gang controlled areas of Cite Soliel. When possible, WFP also buys locally grown rice and beans to help Haitian farmers.
14. Various shot, Lycée Marie-Jeanne :
Between March and June 2024 displacement due to the violence in gang controlled areas has nearly doubled to more than 700,000. Over 5500 people are now living crowded into this school. They have lost their livelihoods and have no means to feed their families. The Haitian government wants children to return to class but, until people can return home or find new places to live that will be extremely challenging.
15. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Rose Petit-Homme:
“The gangs forced us out. I lost my parents—my mother and father. The gangs burned them alive in the house, and now we can't go back to Carrefour. We are here in this camp.”
16. Various shot, Olguine Valcort:
Olguine Valcort, 28 yrs old with her 6 month old baby Daril fled gang violence in Carrefour-Feuilles. The towel on the ground is their bed.
17. SOUNDBITE (CREOLE) Olguine Valcort, 28 yrs old with her 6 month old baby Daril:
“I hope my son can go to school and achieve something in the future, even though it will be difficult.”
20 SEPTEMBER 2024, PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI
18. Various shots, Nutrition testing in Lycée Marie-Jeanne :
The latest IPC data shows that there the number of people facing acute hunger has now reached half of Haiti’s population with the highest rate ever recorded of emergency levels of hunger in Haiti. Of those facing emergency levels of hunger, 6000 people are in IPC5 or catastrophic hunger mostly effecting displaced people and includes Lycée Marie-Jeanne. This means people are facing starvation and death. Red showing in the test band means a child is severely malnourished and must be hospitalized.
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Tanya Birkbeck, Haiti Spokesperson, WFP:
“They are here in these very crowded, very difficult, living conditions and they’ve lost their ability to make money. So, we see very many people who are living in sites for displaced people within the capital who are in a situation which is considered to be the most severe situation in terms of food insecurity. It’s level 5, catastrophic level of food insecurity.”
18 SEPTEMBER 2024, PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI
20. Various shots, preparation of Hot Meals Using Locally Produced Ingredients:
Rice and beans with pork and okra are being prepared for distribution at Lycée Marie-Jeanne. WFP purchases food locally when possible, to support Haitian farmers and stimulate the economy.
20 SEPTEMBER 2024, PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Wanja Kaaria, WFP Country Director, Haiti:
“Without food security we will go into continuously being in that cycle of crises, poverty and the cycle will continue. I don’t see food security being given the same importance as the security sector. There is allot of money going into the security sector, but I believe that if we could put a lot more of that, as well, in the social sector, particularly food and nutrition security, this will also help even tackling the future generations.”
18 SEPTEMBER 2024, PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI
22. Various shot, WFP Hot Meals Being Distributed at Lycée Marie-Jeanne
Haiti today (30 Sep) marks another grim milestone, as the number of people facing acute hunger has now reached half of the country’s population, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis.
As Haiti continues to grapple with a security crisis, 5.4 million people struggle to feed themselves and their families every day, representing one of the highest proportions of acutely food insecure people in any crisis worldwide. Out of these, two million are in the grips of emergency levels of hunger (IPC Phase 4), facing extreme food shortages, acute malnutrition and high disease levels.
At least 6,000 internally displaced people (IDP) living in temporary shelters in Haiti’s capital after fleeing their homes now face catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 5), according to the latest IPC report. This means people are facing starvation, death, destitution, and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels.
The latest IPC report covers August-November 2024 and was released today by Haiti’s Coordination Nationale de la Sécurité Alimentaire (CNSA), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). It provides a common scale to measure the severity and magnitude of acute hunger.
“We must not turn our backs on the worst hunger emergency in the Western hemisphere. WFP is urgently calling for broad-based support to massively increase lifesaving assistance to families struggling every day with extreme food shortages, spiralling malnutrition and deadly diseases. There can be no security or stability in Haiti when millions are facing starvation,” said Cindy McCain, WFP’s Executive Director.
Humanitarian food agencies and NGOs in Haiti are short of US$ 230 million to implement programmes until the end of the year – while families displaced by this year’s surge in violence are on the frontline of rising hunger. Humanitarian organizations continue to face challenges in accessing communities living in areas controlled by armed groups.
“With over 75 percent of Haiti’s most food-insecure people living in rural areas, providing crisis-affected households – particularly internally displaced people (IDPs) and their host communities – with timely and effective emergency agricultural support is a cost-effective solution for them to quickly produce their own food,” said Mario Lubetkin, Assistant Director General and FAO Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Violent attacks and fighting linked to armed groups spiked in Port-au-Prince in early 2024, forcing shipping and airport operations to temporarily grind to a halt. Hundreds of thousands of people have forced from their homes in search of safety; in the past six months the number of IDPs has nearly doubled to more than 700,000. Many IDPs have taken shelter in nearly 100 sites across the capital, including in schools and public buildings. IDP sites are often overcrowded and unsanitary, creating a high risk of disease spread, while traumatized families who have seen their incomes and livelihoods vanish struggle to buy enough food in the context of spiraling prices.
WFP has assisted 1.35 million people country-wide so far in 2024, including through emergency assistance, school meals, social protection, and resilience activities. Families with pregnant/breastfeeding women and/or children under five receive additional support, to prevent malnutrition. With additional resources, WFP stands ready to scale up emergency food assistance.
In crisis-affected, urban, peri-urban and rural populations in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince and Grand’Anse department, FAO plans to support displaced and host families through the provision of cash transfers along with agricultural input packages and training. However, FAO urgently requires funds to scale up its response to reach the most food-insecure populations. With seeds and tools, a household can produce nutritious vegetables in just a few weeks, worth nearly 14 times the cost of the agricultural kit provided.
