Hunger and violence are pushing Haiti to a ‘tipping point’, UN warns

A senior UN official defines the situation he is seeing in Haiti with a devastating phrase: “The country is facing a humanitarian catastrophe.”

The hunger in one of the largest slums in the Caribbean country is in catastrophic levelsas gang violence and economic crises push the nation into a “breaking point”.

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Almost 20,000 people in the impoverished neighborhood of Cité Soleil in the Haitian capital have dangerously little access to food and could starve to death.

“The severity and extent of food insecurity in Haiti are getting worse“warns Jean-Martin Bauer, director of the UN World Food Program in that country.

Almost five million of people there are fighting against malnutrition.

The poorest nation in the Americas has been suffering from acute political, economic, health and security crises that have fueled the growing violence and paralysis gripping the country.

Powerful gangs have blockaded Haiti’s main fuel terminal, causing basic food and water supplies to stop.

In the Cité Soleil neighborhood, the UN said levels of food insecurity reached the highest level in its classification system, Phase 5.

This means that its inhabitants have dangerously limited access to food and could be going hungry.

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Bauer said Haitians “have been through an ordeal.”

Social discontent over the government’s handling of the country’s multiple crises has turned into anti-government protests.

And these have escalated into looting and violent clashes.

In recent weeks the country has experienced more chaos due to shortages. (GETTY IMAGES)

On Tuesday, the World Health Organization said there had been 16 deaths from cholera and 32 confirmed cases in the country, three years after an epidemic of the waterborne disease killed 100,000 people.

Another UN official said that 100,000 children under the age of 5 were severely malnourished and they were especially vulnerable to cholera.

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry has called for foreign military aid, but the call has been criticized by some Haitians who see it as foreign interference.

Since then, the UN has called for the immediate deployment of a special international armed force to Haiti, but it remains unclear which countries would provide the members of such a force and what its task would be.

The gangs have taken over control of key roads, as well as of Varreux, the largest fuel terminal in Haiti. Due to the suspension of food and fuel deliveries, more and more Haitians are going hungry.

Several warehouses run by aid organizations have also been looted, leaving the most vulnerable without food or clean water.

Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world and has suffered a series of recent crises, most notably the assassination of its president Jovenel Moïse in July 2021.

A month later, an earthquake left more than 2,200 dead.

Source: Elcomercio