UN warns of worsening child malnutrition crisis in Haiti

The United Nations has appealed for urgent international funding as worsening violence and displacement threaten to push Haiti’s child nutrition crisis into a critical phase.

The nutrition sector under Haiti’s Humanitarian Response Plan needs US$41 million, but has received only US$7.5 million, leaving it less than 20 per cent funded, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Friday.

“We need more money, and we need it very, very soon,” Dujarric told reporters at the UN’s daily briefing.

More than a quarter of a million children aged six to 59 months are expected to experience acute malnutrition between June this year and May next year, according to estimates from UNICEF, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme.

Nearly 94,000 of those children are projected to suffer severe acute malnutrition, a condition that can become life threatening without timely treatment.

Dujarric said continuing violence has forced families from their homes while disrupting access to food, healthcare and nutrition services. About 1.5 million people are internally displaced, half of them children, while nearly half of Haiti’s population faces food insecurity.

Humanitarian agencies warn conditions could become critical from December through May, with 29 of 140 municipalities projected to reach IPC Acute Malnutrition Phase 3. Cité Soleil and Cabaret are expected to reach Phase 4.

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