UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations aid coordination office, OCHA, in Haiti says that people in the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member state have expressed “despair” following the “abrupt suspension” of a wide range of humanitarian services from the United States.
Modibo Traore“The cancellation of most US funding in January means many services to the most vulnerable people have been cut or put on hold,” warned OCHA on Wednesday. Multiple political, security and socioeconomic crises have led to 5.7 million people suffering from a lack of food and have forced 1.3 million people to flee their homes.”
With a dramatic reduction in funding, OCHA said Haiti faces a crucial “turning point”.
“Humanitarian funding in Haiti is going through a critical phase, marked by a growing gap between the needs and available resources,” said OCHA country director in Haiti, Modibo Traore, stating that, as of July 1, only around 8 per cent of the US$908 million required had been mobilized.
“This partial coverage only allows a fraction of the 3.6 million people targeted to be reached,” he added, stating that UN aid agencies continue to support Haitian people with humanitarian aid.
Traore said the sectors most affected are food security, access to drinking water, primary healthcare, education and protection.
He said this contraction in international support is part of a global context of multiple competing crises – Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan – but added that it “also reflects a loss of political interest in the Haitian issue.”
Traore said the growing humanitarian needs observed in Haiti are “the result of an accumulation of structural and cyclical factors.”
On the socioeconomic front, he said “multidimensional poverty affects a large part of the population,” adding that Haiti’s exposure to natural hazards is “an aggravating factor.”
The OCHA aid coordinator in Haiti said the country has experienced several major hurricanes that struck the southern region less than a week after an earthquake that severely affected the area, “not to mention repeated droughts that have had a major impact on agriculture and livestock farming.”
He said the downtown area of capital Port-au-Prince remains “extremely dangerous” due to gang activity.
Since 2019, Traore said a new dimension has emerged: “chronic insecurity caused by the proliferation of armed groups, particularly in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and now in the Centre and Artibonite departments.”
In 2024, he said the multidimensional crisis that has been shaking Haiti for years has become “catastrophic.”
“The level of violence and insecurity remains high, with devastating consequences for the population, including massive displacement of people who were already in vulnerable situations,” Traore said.
“The rise of armed groups in Haiti and their increasing control of strategic locations, particularly major roads and ports of entry to the capital, is a major obstacle to the safe and efficient delivery of humanitarian aid,” he said.
Traore said this dynamic has an impact on the risk perception of international donors, who now assess Haiti as “a high-threat environment for intervention.”
He said access to beneficiaries has become irregular in many areas.
“The deterioration of the security situation represents a major challenge for mobilizing and maintaining financial commitments,” Traore said. “Donors have expressed concerns about operational risks, particularly regarding securing supply chains, preventing exploitation and ensuring accountability.”
He said the operational cost of aid has also increased.
Traore noted that, on January 20, 2025, when Donald Trump assumed the presidency in the United States, he signed Executive Order 14169, “which imposed an immediate suspension of all new foreign funding by US federal agencies, including humanitarian programs run by USAID (United States Agency for International Development) and multilateral partners.
In the case of Haiti, Traore said the effects were felt through the sudden halt of about 80 per cent of US-funded programs.
He said non-governmental partners (NGO) partner staff were laid off, payments were suspended, and supply chains were disrupted.
Beyond the structural effects, Traore said this suspension created “profound uncertainty in the Haitian humanitarian system.
“This situation not only weakened the continuity of essential services, but also affected trust between beneficiary communities and humanitarian actors,” he said.
The OCHA aid coordinator in Haiti said 2025 “marks a turning point in humanitarian aid in the country.
“This crisis is not the result of a single or isolated event, but rather a series of deteriorating situations in the context of gradually waning international attention,” he said, declaring that the interruption of US programs has acted as “a catalyst for the crisis.”
Traore said USAID’s technical partners, many of whom managed community health programs in vulnerable neighborhoods, have ceased operations, “depriving hundreds of thousands of people of vital services.”
He also said US-co-funded health centers have closed, leaving pregnant women and children without assistance.
“The current crisis demonstrates the country’s growing isolation,” Traore said.
He said while previous crises had prompted rapid international solidarity, the humanitarian response to the situation in 2025 has been “slow and partial.”
Traore said the interruption of funding has forced humanitarian organizations to make “ethically complex and often painful trade-offs.”
In the area of protection, for example, he said safe spaces for women and girls have been drastically reduced.
He cautioned that the long-term development of Haiti is at risk as funding decreases.
Additionally, Traore said cash transfer programs, widely used in urban areas since 2021, have also been suspended.
He said these programs enabled vulnerable households to maintain a minimum level of food security.
The suspension has led to a resurgence of coping mechanisms such as child labor, less food and children being taken out of school.
He added that resilience-building activities have also been affected
“This compromises not only the immediate response, but also the development of medium-term solutions,” Traore said.
In working-class neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince, as well as in remote rural areas, Traore said the cessation of food distribution, community healthcare and cash transfers were “experienced as a breach of the moral contract between communities and humanitarian institutions.”
However, he said humanitarian partners “communicate transparently about the reduction of support, so communities are, to some extent, aware of the financial constraints.”
