NEARLY 6,000 people in Haiti are starving, with nearly half the population of more than 11 million people experiencing crisis levels of hunger or worse, according to a damning new report.

Published on Monday, the report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said the number of Haitians facing crisis, emergency and famine levels of hunger has increased by 1.2 million in the past year to reach a total of 5.4 million.

Gang violence in the Caribbean nation has disrupted the transport of goods and prevents people from leaving their homes to buy food.

“This is one of the highest proportions of acutely food insecure people in any crisis around the world,” said United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

The 5,636 people facing starvation, the worst level of hunger, live in makeshift shelters across the metropolitan area, according to the report, which noted that another two million Haitians face severe hunger.

“This is shocking,” said Action Against Hunger’s Haiti director Martine Villeneuve. “We were not expecting that level. Two million is massive.”

Ms Villeneuve said she was also surprised that some of the two million people hit by hunger don’t live in places directly affected by gang violence.

Double-digit inflation also has limited what many Haitians can afford to buy, with food now representing 70 per cent of total household expenditure.

The cost of a food basket has increased more than 11 per cent in the past year, with inflation hitting 30 per cent in July.

Parts of Haiti are still struggling to recover from an August 2021 earthquake, various drought episodes and Hurricane Matthew, which struck Haiti as a category four storm in 2016.

Gang violence, however, accounts for most of the hunger, with criminals controlling 80 per cent of Port-au-Prince and the roads that lead to and from northern and southern Haiti, preventing the delivery of food and aid supplies.

From April to June, at least 1,379 people were reported killed or injured and another 428 kidnapped. 

In addition, gang violence has left more than 700,000 people homeless.

Among those experiencing hunger is Joceline St-Louis, who said: “Food doesn’t come around very often,” adding that she depends on others to feed her two children.

Judeline Auguste said: “It’s very rare that I can get a meal a day.

“My situation is hard not because of me, but because of my son. He looks at other people eating all the time and he starts crying: ‘Mummy, I’m hungry’.”