(2025-09) Key Message Update: Despite actions against gang violence, insecurity continues to disrupt food access and availability

FEWS NET finds acute food insecurity continuing to worsen, especially in the gang-plagued marginalized neighborhoods of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area (ZMPP) and in the Ouest, Nord-Ouest and Grand'Anse. Crop losses from water deficits, declining purchasing power and lost income are the main drivers; poor households and IDPs in the capital, who have lost livelihoods to gang extortion and face precarious site conditions, are worst affected. Outcomes could deteriorate further between September 2025 and February 2026 even through the year-end holidays and the below-average fall and winter harvests, as humanitarian response stays very limited amid funding cuts and access constraints. Despite police crackdowns, insecurity rose sharply from May, averaging ~220 violent incidents a month (May-August, PLSO); gangs control nearly 90% of the ZMPP and are intensifying attacks in Ouest (Kenscoff, Arcahaie, Cabaret), Artibonite and Centre. IDPs exceed 1.3 million and mass deportations neared 190,000 (January-11 September, ~98% from the Dominican Republic). Market supply in the ZMPP, Centre and Artibonite is disrupted as gang-controlled routes and passage fees keep the 'Madam Sara' traders from supplying urban markets; fuel prices rose (over 13% for gasoline, ~8% for diesel in the Nord-Ouest). With insecurity, higher fuel prices and gourde depreciation, staple prices (imported rice, local beans and maize) exceed 100% above the five-year national average. Below-average rainfall may delay the winter season, and El Niño-like dry conditions point to below-average harvests.