"The economy suffered a severe blow [...] Most cultures untouched by the passage of Isaac [last August] was destroyed by Sandy," declared the Prime Minister, Laurent Lamothe.

For his part, Jean Debalio Jean-Jacques, Head of the Department of Agriculture to the Department of the South, estimates that Sandy destroyed 70% of crops in southern Haiti and caused significant livestock losses.

According to a senior UN humanitarian in Haiti, more than a million people are threatened by food insecurity in Haiti, after the passage of Sandy in the Caribbean. Johan Peleman, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ (OCHA) operation in Haiti, indicates Thursday that the agency continued to review the damage caused by the passage of Sandy, noting that 15,000 and 20,000 people have seen their houses completely destroyed, damaged or flooded.

What is most worrying OCHA, explained Mr. Peleman, to the UN Radio, is that Haiti, after a long period of drought this year, had been hard hit in August by Isaac and now with the passage of Sandy "we fear that a great deal of the harvest which was ongoing in the south of the country may have been destroyed completely. Already, the drought and the previous storm had hit the northern part of the country very badly and we had seen the levels of food insecurity rise there [...] With the south being hit now, we are going to face in the next couple of months very serious problems of malnutrition and food insecurity."

Johan Peleman, estimates that "there are approximately 1.2 million people who are facing food insecurity in the country."

See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-7050-haiti-sandy-laurent-lamothe-explains-the-action-plan-of-the-government.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-7047-haiti-humanitarian-the-united-states-with-haiti-after-the-passage-of-sandy.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-7024-haiti-politic-laurent-lamothe-provides-assistance-to-kenscoff.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-7018-haiti-social-petit-goave-receives-the-assistance-of-government.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-7012-haiti-social-the-government-on-the-ground-with-the-population.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-7007-haiti-social-laurent-lamothe-appeals-to-national-solidarity.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-6999-haiti-social-the-government-s-response-to-sandy.html

HL/ HaitiLibre