Haitians are struggling to find food and some say change
cannot come fast enough to the Caribbean country in the
capital Port Au Prince, conflict with armed gangs has
cut the city off from suppliers, paralyzed trade routes
and pushed Haiti to its highest level of hunger on
record. Miriam A stays in a makeshift shelter at
a school. This is the way we live sitting
here every day. There is no food unless an
organization sends us something to eat after that, there
isn't anything else. Some 5 million people are struggling
to feed themselves due to the conflict. According to
the integrated food security phase classification, that's an international
benchmark used to assess hunger, soaring food prices have
also fueled a crisis. The cost of fresh fish
was up 60% in March compared to a year ago
. According to Haiti's statistics agency, Rita Lo Angie
looks after her two granddaughters who are four and six
. Her sons work odd jobs to help make ends
meet. Things are very expensive. It's a problem
to buy anything to eat. You must have a
lot of money in order to just buy enough for
three meals. It's very difficult. She says unable
to work. Families are depending on food rations and
hygiene kits brought in by NGO. The world Food
program is a major meal supplier but with armed groups
holding sway over some routes. Its Haiti director Jean
Marc de Boer says transporting that food can be tricky
. What we've done in response is shorten our supply
chains. So outside Port Au Prince, we try
to do as much as we can with local farmers
. Like I said, we work with 170 farmer
organizations with 20,000 members to supply the food we use
for our programs and that's been very successful. He
also pointed to a 2024 un wide humanitarian fund for
Haiti that is over$500 million below target. Haiti's
last president was assassinated in 2021. Since then,
armed gangs have expanded their power and influence resulting in
looting, arson, mass rapes and indiscriminate killings.
In June, the first wave of a long delayed
United Nations backed force of mostly African troops arrived in
Haiti to bolster security services and Kenyan police have already
begun patrolling the capital. Haitian Prime Minister Gary Conil
told the Un Security Council on Wednesday that move marked
a critical stage in restoring security. The arrival of
the first contingent of the multinational support kicks off a
new era in Haiti. Residents are cautiously optimistic although
it's unclear when the bulk of the force will arrive