Southwest Haiti faces risk of food insecurity, UN relief wing says

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said there is no famine in Haiti, but cause for concern still exists as people in the southwestern part of the country are at risk of high levels of food insecurity, a UN spokesman told reporters here Friday.

The Emergency Food Security Assessment conducted in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane indicated that more than 800,000 people were at extreme level of food insecurity, the deputy UN spokesman, Farhan Haq, said at a daily news briefing. "This assessment will be updated in the second half of this month."

In the southwest region, which is most affected by Hurricane Matthew and accounts for 60 percent of the national crop production, crop destruction ranges from 75 percent to 100 percent, Haq said.

"The region is therefore at risk of facing high levels of food insecurity by mid next year if the March planting season does not yield," he said.

In the two months since the hurricane, humanitarian organizations have provided food to 796,000 people in the first round of distribution as well as safe water to more than 700,000, he said.

Also on Friday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Susan D. Page of the United States as his new deputy special representative for rule of law in the Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), Haq said. Endit