Half of all Haitians are struggling every day to find food as rampant gang violence and lawlessness are causing “the worst hunger emergency in the western hemisphere”, a report has found.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) and its partner organisations estimate that 5.4 million Haitians are now regularly finding it hard to get enough to eat, a record for the Caribbean nation and the largest proportion of acutely food insecure people anywhere in the world, WFP said. The figure suggests another 600,000 people have fallen into “crisis” level hunger since the previous peaks recorded earlier this year and in 2023.

A coalition of 12 leading aid agencies has called for immediate action to alleviate the escalating hunger crisis as gang control of major roads blocks food supplies and causes huge price rises.

“Without immediate action the hunger crisis in Haiti will continue to deepen, with devastating consequences for millions of vulnerable people,” civil society groups in Port-au-Prince, including Action Against Hunger, Save the Children and Mercy Corps warned in an open letter.