(2025-11) Key Message Update: Hurricane Melissa and persistent insecurity worsen acute food insecurity
Summary — Several parts of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area remain in Emergency (IPC Phase 4) while most rural areas are in Crisis (IPC Phase 3); FEWS NET estimates 3.0-3.49 million people will need food assistance (November 2025-May 2026), peaking in the April-May lean season. Hurricane Melissa affected more than 1.25 million people across the Grand Sud and Ouest. Poor households increasingly resort to negative coping strategies, and the $908 million Humanitarian Response Plan is only 21% funded.
Key Findings
- Emergency (IPC Phase 4) persists across the ZMPP; most rural areas in Crisis (IPC Phase 3).
- 0-3.49 million people need food assistance (Nov 2025-May 2026), peaking April-May.
- Hurricane Melissa affected >1.25 million people; >11,900 homes damaged; autumn crops destroyed.
- BINUH Q3 2025: 1,247 deaths, 710 injuries, 145 kidnappings, 400+ sexual-violence cases; ~45,000 displaced since September.
- WFP reached only 12,700 of 360,000 identified (3.5%); the $908M Humanitarian Response Plan is 21% funded.
Full Description
FEWS NET reports that several areas of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area (ZMPP) - Cité Soleil, Croix-des-Bouquets, Port-au-Prince and IDP sites - remain in Emergency (IPC Phase 4), while most rural areas stay in Crisis (IPC Phase 3). Facing combined crop losses, atypically high food prices and persistent insecurity, poor households increasingly rely on negative coping strategies including reducing meals, selling productive assets, forced migration, risky debt, begging and survival sex. FEWS NET estimates 3.0-3.49 million people will need food assistance between November 2025 and May 2026, peaking in the April-May lean season. Insecurity keeps deteriorating in the ZMPP, Artibonite and the Central Plateau, with no major area considered safe (PLSO); BINUH reported 1,247 deaths, 710 injuries, 145 kidnappings and more than 400 cases of sexual violence linked to gang activity in Q3 2025, and about 45,000 people displaced since September. Hurricane Melissa, with rainfall exceeding 250 mm, affected more than 1.25 million people in the South, Southeast, Nippes, Grand'Anse and West, with over 11,900 homes flooded or damaged and nearly 16,000 people sheltered; autumn crops (banana, maize, sorghum, roots and tubers, pigeon peas) were destroyed in the hardest-hit communes. Yellow maize in Jérémie rose 31% between September and October. Emergency food assistance remains far below needs: of 360,000 people WFP identified for immediate assistance only 12,700 (3.5%) were reached in initial distributions, and the $908 million Humanitarian Response Plan is only 21% funded.