A top official referred to the decision made by the UN World Food Program on Monday, which will result in 100,000 people in Haiti being without food assistance this month, as “heartbreaking.”
The organization’s response plan in Haiti is just 16 percent financed halfway through the year, according to the agency, and the cuts equal a 25% fall from June.
“These cuts could not come at a worse time, as Haitians face a multi-layered humanitarian crisis, their lives and livelihoods upended by violence, insecurity, economic turmoil and climate shocks,” said Jean-Martin Bauer, WFP country director for the Caribbean nation.
He added: “Unless we receive immediate funding, further devastating cuts cannot be ruled out.”
Around 1.5 million individuals received food or monetary assistance from the WFP in the first half of 2023, including 450,000 children who received school lunches, a program that is now in danger of facing significant budget cuts.
“Without an injection of funds, nearly half of these children will no longer have access to school meals when they return to class after the summer break,” the agency said.
The WFP estimates it requires $121 million through the end of the year in Haiti.
“It is heartbreaking. Haiti is a country that has suffered so much,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the United Nations Secretary-General. “And has been so forgotten, despite the fact that it is so close to so much wealth.”
Three million children and just under half of Haiti’s population, or around 5.2 million people, require humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
The government’s loss of territory to armed gangs and an unrelenting political crises have both served to worsen an already precarious scenario.
