By: Staff Writer
November 29, 2024
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that their latest estimates indicate that the number of children recruited by armed groups in Haiti increased by 70 per cent in the last year.
UNICEF, a release on their website, also said: “The unprecedented spike, registered between the second quarters of 2023 and 2024, points to a worsening protection crisis for children in the violence-plagued Caribbean Island. At present, up to half of all members in armed groups are children.”
“Children in Haiti are trapped in a vicious cycle—recruited into the very armed groups that are fueling their desperation, and the numbers are growing,” said UNICEF Executive Director and Inter Agency Standing Committee Principal Advocate for Haiti, Catherine Russell. “This unacceptable trend must be reversed by ensuring children’s safety and welfare are prioritized by all parties.”
UNICEF continued: “The rise in child recruitment by armed groups has been fueled by escalating violence, pervasive poverty, lack of education, and near collapse of critical infrastructure and social services in Haiti. Children are often coerced into joining to support their families, or under threats to their safety. Many are recruited after being separated from their caretakers, stripped of protection and survival options.
“Meanwhile, children living in the increasingly diminishing number of areas outside the control of armed groups are often viewed with suspicion, and risk being branded as spies or even killed by vigilante movements. When they defect or refuse to join the violence, their lives and safety are immediately at risk.”
Haiti is still grappling with the fall out of the armed gangs that have taken the country hostage in the wake of the assassination of their president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated back in 2021.
The country has fallen deeper and deeper into the pit of economic blight and social despair as child soldiers are now the norm.
“Children in many parts of Haiti are subjected to atrocities no child should ever have to experience, leaving them with psychological and emotional scars that might haunt them for a lifetime,” added Russell. “Chaos and horror have become part of daily life.”
The UNICEF report also said: “In the capital Port-au- Prince, 1.2 million children live under the threat of armed violence. An estimated 25 per cent of all 703,000 internally displaced persons in the country – 365,000 children – are currently in the city living under very dire conditions and exposed to multiple threats.
“Sexual assault and rape have become rampant in Haiti. According to the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, the number of children exposed to sexual violence skyrocketed tenfold this year alone.
“In 2024, UNICEF has reached over 25,000 people with services and support related to sexual and gender-based violence, including multi-sectoral case management, psychosocial support, and community sensitization.”