PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Nearly 6,000 people in Haiti are starving, with nearly half the country's population of more than 11 million people experiencing crisis levels of hunger or worse as gang violence smothers life in the capital of Port-au-Prince and beyond, according to a new report released Monday. The number of Haitians facing crisis, emergency and famine levels of hunger increased by 1.2 million in the past year for a total of 5.
4 million as gang violence disrupts the transportation of goods and prevents people from venturing out of their homes to buy food, according to the report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. “This is one of the highest proportions of acutely food insecure people in any crisis around the world,” said U.N.
spokesman Stéphane Dujarric. The 5,636 people who are facing starvation, the worst level, live in makeshift shelters across the metropolitan area, according to the report, which noted that another 2 million Haitians face severe hunger. “This is shocking,” said Martine Villeneuve, Haiti director for the nonprofit Action Against Hunger.
“We were not expecting that level. Two million ..
. is massive.” Villeneuve told The Associated Press that she also was surprised that some of the 2 million people hit by hunger don't even live in places directly affected by gang violence.
While much of the hunger is directly tied to gang violence, double-digit inflation also has limited what many Haitians can afford to buy, w.