By Sarah Morland
(Reuters) -The United Nations’ Haiti appeal for 2025 has received the lowest funding of any response plan worldwide, the organization’s humanitarian coordinator for the Caribbean nation said on Tuesday, as armed gangs continue to paralyze transport routes and fuel hunger.
This year’s humanitarian response plan aims to raise over $900 million, mainly from U.N. member countries, but is just 9.2% funded, the coordinator, Ulrika Richardson, said in a briefing marked “the lowest level of funding for any response plan in the world.”
Ukraine’s $2.63-billion appeal for this year is by comparison 38% funded, according to U.N. financial tracking data, while a $4-billion flash appeal for the Palestinian territories received $890 million, or 22% of its target.
“We have tools, but the response from the international community is just not at par with the gravity on the ground,” Richardson said.
More than 3,100 people have been killed this year in a conflict with heavily armed gangs that has pushed more than half the population into food insecurity and around 1.3 million from their homes. More than 8,000 people living in makeshift camps face famine-level hunger.
A partially-deployed U.N.-backed force led by Kenya and based on voluntary contributions, deployed a year ago but has had little effect in helping a cash-strapped police force reclaim territories.
Meanwhile, many aid organizations have had to cut back services due to the difficulty of bringing in supplies and ensuring the safety of the people they work with.
Richardson said strangling the trafficking of arms – which the U.N. estimates are largely shipped from Florida – into Haiti was key to stopping the violence, as well as sanctions against those involved in financial support of the gangs.
“Haiti can quickly spiral up again, but the violence needs to end,” she said.
(Reporting by Sarah Morland in Mexico City and Michelle Nichols at the United NationsEditing by Rod Nickel)
