In a study released on Friday, December 13, 2024, the World Food Program (WFP) notes that the worsening of food insecurity among households in the metropolitan area with poor food consumption increased from 28% to 33%. This is an increase of 5 percentage points in 2 weeks after the security events of mid-November.

According to the WFP, the most affected municipalities remain Pétion-ville, Delmas and Port-au-Prince. In this climate of insecurity and hunger, the UN agency reports an increase of 7 percentage points in households having experienced moderate or severe hunger, reaching 84% across the entire national territory.

Let' recall that the November IPC food security data showed that one in two Haitians did not have enough to eat, that two million people were facing emergency levels of hunger and that up to 6,000 internally displaced people are experiencing catastrophic levels of hunger (IPC Phase 5, famine).

The deterioration of the food situation is even more significant for 80% of internally displaced people who face multiple deprivations in the shelters.

An analysis of the food consumption and coping strategies of the latter reveals that nearly 60% of the displaced have poor food consumption (22 percentage points higher than the metropolitan area average of 33%). This alarming figure highlights the increased food insecurity of the internally displaced within an already fragile population.

In these conditions, more than 80% of the displaced people resort to crisis or emergency survival strategies. These strategies are manifested by the adoption of precarious food behaviors such as the consumption of cheaper or lower quality foods, the use of food loans, the reduction of portions and the frequency of meals, as well as the prioritization of children's consumption over that of adults.

According to the WFP, this food degradation is due to the violence of armed groups, which affects the livelihoods of the most vulnerable. An aggravating factor, the crisis has caused a "significant increase in prices" for most products in the metropolitan area, with impacts particularly felt in the municipalities of Pétion-ville, Tabarre and Delmas.

HL/ HaitiLibre