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Around 6,000 people in Haiti are facing starvation, with nearly half of the population at crisis levels of hunger as gang violence cripples daily life in Port-au-Prince and beyond, according to a report released Monday.
Jean Yonel and Hyacinthe Monime’s family of seven children barely manage to scrape together enough food for one meal a day, often consisting of just rice or pasta. They were forced to flee their home after gangs invaded their neighborhood.
“The food that would normally feed one person has to feed ten,” Yonel said. “We only get enough to survive, not to thrive.”
Once a mason, Yonel now scavenges for wood to make charcoal, as construction jobs have all but disappeared. His wife sells second-hand clothes, and when they can’t afford a proper meal, she mixes flour with spinach to keep their children’s hunger at bay.
Despite the recent arrival of nearly 500 international police officers to help bolster Haiti’s national police force, much of the capital remains unsafe. Streets are strewn with trash and barricades made from burned-out vehicles, remnants of gang violence that continues to plague the country.
Between April and June, at least 1,379 people were reported killed or injured, with another 428 kidnapped. Years of gang-related violence have also left more than 700,000 people homeless.
