Port-au-Prince, Sep 22 (EFE).- The World Food Program (PMA) condemned this Thursday the looting of its warehouses in Haiti during the two weeks of anti-government protests.
“Nothing justifies looting. Looters are starving their most vulnerable neighbors and leaving children in their own communities without food in schools,” WFP Haiti Country Director Jean-Martin Bauer said in a note.
In just one week, two warehouses belonging to this United Nations agency have been the object of acts of looting, the last one yesterday in Les Cayes, the country’s third largest city.
The warehouse, which was also set on fire, contained 762 metric tons of food as part of the WFP emergency program and in preparation for the hurricane season.
In such a case, a rapid response could be given in the south of the country by feeding more than 46,000 people.
All staff are safe and no member was directly attacked, confirmed the WFP, which, according to Bauer, is in “Haiti to serve the Haitian people. Our goal is to ensure that our food reaches the most vulnerable families.”
For this reason, he stressed, “it is imperative that the violence cease so that food distributions can resume as soon as possible.”
This is the second serious incident affecting WFP facilities, following the looting and burning in Gonaives on 15 September.
That warehouse contained 1,400 metric tons of food destined for the emergency plan and for 100,000 children in the school feeding program.
The protests raged in Haiti after Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced an increase in fuel prices in a message to the nation, with the consequent impact on the cost of basic products and transportation.
In these demonstrations, public and private companies and humanitarian institutions present in Haiti, a country immersed in a serious social, political and economic crisis and in the midst of a battle between criminal gangs, were looted and burned.
