UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. food agency is appealing for $46 million for the next six months to help about 2 million Haitians in dire need of food, including 8,500 at the worst catastrophic level of hunger.
The appeal was issued by Lola Castro, the World Food Program’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, who recently returned from Haiti, where escalating gang violence has displaced well over 1 million people and left half the population — 5.7 million people — in urgent need of food.
Two million of them are in the two worst categories in the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the leading international authority on hunger crises, and 8,500 are in the worst Phase 5 category, she said. That means at least one in five people or households severely lack food and face starvation and destitution.
Haiti is one of only five countries in the world that have people in the Phase 5 category of catastrophic hunger, Castro said, “and it is really dramatic to have this in the Western Hemisphere.”
Gangs have grown in power since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021 and are now estimated to control 85% of the capital and are moving into surrounding areas. Haiti has not had a president since the assassination, and the top U.N. official in the country said in April the country could face “total chaos” without funding to confront the gangs..
A U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police arrived in Haiti last year to help quell gang violence, but the mission remains understaffed and underfunded, with only about 40% of the 2,500 personnel originally envisioned.
The WFP, the world’s largest humanitarian organization, is among the U.N. agencies facing funding cuts, mainly from the United States, which provided nearly half of its funding in 2024.
Castro said WFP reached over 1.3 million people this year until March using carryover funds from last year. But the agency is facing a dramatic situation now with food stocks only until July to assist with emergencies, new displacements or hurricanes, she said.
In the past four years, Castro said WFP always had stocks to help between 250,000 and 500,000 people with any emergency.
“This year, we start the hurricane season with an empty warehouse where we have no stocks for assisting any emergency, or we have no cash neither to go and buy (food) locally if it was possible in some areas, or to do a rapid humanitarian response,” Castro said. “We are very concerned that a single storm can put hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti again into humanitarian catastrophe and hunger.”
WFP normally provides a meal every day for around 500,000 school children, but that number will be cut in half without additional resources, she told a video press conference on Tuesday.
With $46 million, she said, WFP will be able to help the 2 million Haitians in most need of food, keep providing school meals for half a million children, and provide social protection for very vulnerable people in camps for the displaced.
Haiti must not be forgotten as the world deals with other crises, Castro said, urging donors to be generous.
“We really need to stop this and to hold the line on hunger,” she said. “We continue calling the humanitarian community to provide support.”
With $46 million, she said, WFP will be able to help the 2 million Haitians in the two worst IPC categories, keep providing school meals for half a million children, and provide social protection for very vulnerable people in camps for the displaced.
A woman combs the hair of another at a shelter for families displaced by gang violence, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.
Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.
Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”
Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”
Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.
“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”
He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”
Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.
More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.
With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.
Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.
In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.
Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”
Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.
“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.
The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.
The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.
Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.
In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)
