Nearly HALF of Haiti is starving as gangs running 90% of the nation push locals to brink of famine - with thousands fleeing the bloody chaos

Almost half of Haiti's people are struggling to feed themselves as gang violence rages across the country, with several large areas on the verge of famine.

Soaring Inflation and meager harvests have also helped push Haiti to its worst levels of food insecurity on record.

'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 Program's Haiti director, said.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification - 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.

Eight areas were deemed to be in an emergency phase - the worst level before famine, it said.

Haiti's mounting food insecurity is driven by gang warfare- Jimmy 'Barbecue' Cherizier (pictured center) is the gang leader

4.97 million Haitians are feeling the pangs of hunger, and only five percent of the population has received food aid

The country is embroiled in a bloody war between the gangs and the police

These include the Artibonite valley, Haiti's farming heartland, which has been devastated by gangs expanding from the capital Port-au-Prince, rural parts of the Grand-Anse peninsula and neighborhoods of the capital such as the poor Cite Soleil district.

The Caribbean country has been gripped by violence since rival gangs unleashed a wave of attacks this month, including savage assaults on police stations and the international airport. 

The bloody conflict has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands.

Regional leaders are trying to form a transitional council and Prime Minister Ariel Henry has promised to resign once it is set up. 

The mass starvation is also being caused by skyrocketing inflation and poor harvests

Casualties are high and widespread and the nation's leader, Prime Minister Ariel Henry, has been unable to return to the country

The gangs have compounded food shortages by making bloody depredations on local farms

But Henry is currently stranded abroad, barred from the country after making a visit to Kenya to discuss the deployment of an international security force. This has now been put on hold.

The WFP said Haiti was now suffering its worst levels of food insecurity on record, with many people resorting to desperate measures and taking on more debt as armed groups conquer farmlands and rob farmers of their crops.

The IPC report found only five percent of Haitians had received humanitarian food aid, and the WFP said that operations were 'woefully under-funded.'

More than 30,000 people have fled violence and shortages in the capital in just two weeks this month, according to U.N. data, most of them people who had already lost their homes and were living in impoverished camps or with other families.

It's estimated that the gang's hegemony extends over 90 percent of the country

In just two weeks, an estimated 30,000 Haitians fled the violence and food shortages in the capital this month

As the country plunges into further chaos, once-safe neighborhoods like Petion-Ville are now experiencing violence and devastation, too

Authorities in the neighboring country of Dominican Republic, who have deported tens of thousands of Haitian migrants, have said they have not agreed to an air bridge announced by the U.N. to supply aid to Haiti, saying its air route is for evacuating foreigners.

Laurent Uwumuremyi, who heads aid group Mercy Corps' Haiti arm, said gangs now hold sway over nearly 90 percent of the capital with basic errands impossible, key infrastructure closed, shortages in basic supplies and hospitals on the brink of collapse.

'Even in areas like Petion-Ville, an upscale neighborhood that until recently was considered safe, the population has been barricaded indoors,' he said.

'If the situation deteriorates without any efforts to address the unfolding humanitarian crisis, Port-au-Prince will soon find itself completely overwhelmed.'