El Niño Exacerbating Hunger as One-Third of Haiti’s Population Face Food Insecurity (For the Media)

PORT-AU-PRINCE – The United Nations World Food Programme will launch an emergency operation to assist 1 million people devastated by three years of prolonged drought exacerbated by the El Niño weather phenomenon. An estimated 3.6 million people, or one-third of Haiti’s population, face food insecurity. This number includes more than 1.5 million who are severely food insecure and do not know where their next meal is coming from, according to an assessment by WFP and the National Coordination for Food Security. In coordination with the National School Meals Programme, WFP delivers daily hot meals to 485,000 schoolchildren in over 1,700 schools in nine of Haiti’s 10 departments until the end of April. Unless new donations are received, the programme will only reach 320,000 children as of May 2016.