According to a UNICEF report issued Monday, gangs in Haiti are recruiting youngsters at previously unheard-of levels, with the number of minors targeted increasing by 70% over the previous 12 months.
According to the U.N., children currently make up between 30% and 50% of all gang members in the violent nation.
UNICEF’s representative in Haiti, Geeta Narayan, called this trend extremely alarming.
The rise coincides with growing poverty and political unrest, as gangs that control 85% of Port-au-Prince attack once-calm neighborhoods in an attempt to seize complete control of the capital.
In a phone conversation from Haiti, Narayan stated that young boys are frequently utilized as informers since they are invisible and not perceived as a threat. Some are armed and coerced into taking part in assaults.
In the meantime, girls are made to do household chores, cook, and even serve as gang members’ “wives.”
According to Narayan, they are not acting voluntarily. Here, the child is the victim even when they are carrying weapons.
Easy prey
Recruiting youngsters is frequently simple in a nation where over 60% of the population makes less than $4 a day and hundreds of thousands of Haitians are starving or on the verge of starvation.
According to a U.N. Security Council study, one young person in a gang claimed to receive $33 every Saturday, while another claimed to have received thousands of dollars during his first month in a gang operation.
According to Narayan, acute poverty is sometimes making children and families more and more desperate.
Gunmen frequently threaten kids or their families or outright kidnap them if they don’t want to join a gang.
Children who are deported from the Dominican Republic, which borders Haiti on the island of Hispaniola, and are separated from their families are also targeted by gangs.
According to Narayan, those kids are being targeted more and more.
As a vigilante movement that started last year to target suspected gang members gaining traction, gangs aren’t the only threat.
According to UNICEF, children are frequently treated suspiciously and run the risk of being labeled spies or even killed by vigilante groups. Their safety and lives are instantly under danger when they defect or refuse to participate in the violence.
A video of a child’s body lying close to an adult who was also killed was shared on social media last week following gang attacks on an area around a wealthy subdivision. At least 28 alleged gang members were slain that day, according to police, while locals battling alongside authorities with machetes and firearms.
Increased vulnerability
According to a U.N. Security Council report, the gangs that recruit the most minors include Terre Noire, Brooklyn, Kraze Barye, Grand Ravine, and 5 Segond.
As gangs watch them, new recruits are typically told to buy food and given money to buy companions. They then take part in conflicts and, for instance, get promoted if they murder someone. According to the article, if a recruit proves they are not a spy after two or three years in the gang, they join the entourage.
Since many schools are still closed and children are becoming more vulnerable due to gang violence, which has left over 700,000 people homeless in recent years, including an estimated 365,000 juveniles, recruitment is on the rise. Many of them reside in temporary shelters where gangs prey on them and they are subjected to sexual and physical abuse.
According to a Human Rights Watch report released on Monday, criminal organizations in Haiti are horrifyingly sexually abusing women and girls.
A 14-year-old girl from the capital was mentioned in the report as saying that she was kidnapped and raped several times by several guys over the course of five days at a home with six other girls who were also raped and abused.
Human Rights Watch reported that although there has been less combat between armed groups this year, there have been more attacks on Haitians, law enforcement, and vital infrastructure.
It said that sexual assault has been a common tactic employed by criminal organizations to terrorize neighboring territory.
It s not all rosy
Children as young as eight are being targeted by gangs, and experts say that the longer a youngster remains with an armed group, the more difficult it is to rescue and reintegrate them into society.
According to Narayan, the promotion and reward of violence is very detrimental to a child’s psychosocial development.
There are a number of ways for kids to leave gangs: some voluntarily, some run away, and occasionally nonprofit organizations will track them down and take them to facilities where they can get medical attention if necessary, psychological support, and other assistance.
According to Narayan, there is a transitional phase. Not everything is sunshine and roses. On all sides, it does take time.
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