The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said in a report that about 4.97 million people out of a population of about 11.5 million were facing crisis or worse levels of food insecurity.

Almost half of Haiti’s people are struggling to feed themselves as gang violence spreads across the country, with several areas close to famine, international organizations said on Friday.

Inflation and poor harvests have also helped push Haiti to its worst levels of food insecurity on record, they said.

“Rising hunger is fueling the security crisis that is shattering the country. We need urgent action now — waiting to respond at scale is not an option,” Jean-Martin Bauer, the World Food Programme’s Haiti director, said.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) — an organization which sets a scale used by the United Nations and governments to assess hunger — said in a report that about 4.97 million people out of a population of about 11.5 million were facing crisis or worse levels of food insecurity.