'Single storm' could push thousands of Haitians into hunger, WFP warns as hurricane season begins

With hurricane season underway in the Caribbean, the World Food Program (WFP) has warned that a single storm could push hundreds of thousands of Haitians into hunger.

Haiti's location and topography leave it particularly vulnerable to storms and years of political instability have left it facing dire food shortages. Now the WFP says it needs 46 million dollars to stave off disaster.

Lola Castro is Regional Director for WFP in Latin America and the Caribbean:

"In the last four years I've been going to Haiti and always had humanitarian stocks in the country to assist between a quarter- to half-a-million people. If there was any hurricane, any earthquake, or storms or new displacement. This year, we start the hurricane season with an empty warehouse where we have no stocks for assisting any emergency. Or we have no cash neither to go and buy locally if it was possible in some areas or to do a rapid humanitarian response. We are very concerned that the single storm can put hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti again into humanitarian catastrophe and hunger.”

Castro also spoke to the violence she has seen in Haiti’s capital region especially against women and girls and the urgent need to provide them with more support.

“Six thousand women and girls have reported some type of gender-based violence, which is really not acceptable. And I would say Port-au-Prince is probably one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman or a girl now,” she said.

Violent gangs in the country have grown in power since the July 7, 2021, assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. They are estimated to control 85 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and are moving into surrounding areas.

Haiti has not had a president since Moïse's assassination and in April, the United Nations warned that the country could soon face total chaos without increased funding and support from international communities and organizations.