Children make up about half of all armed gang members in Haiti, the head of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday, calling for their protection to be stepped up. Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) says it is ramping up its operations in Haiti in the face of a hunger crisis caused mainly by violence and displacement. Some 5.5 million Haitians are in need of humanitarian assistance in 2024, a number that is expected to rise.
"We estimate that children account for up to 50 percent of armed group members, while the total number of children recruited by armed groups has jumped by 70 percent over the past year," UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell told a UN meeting on the situation of children in Haiti.
"They are being used as informants, cooks and sex slaves, and they are being forced to perpetrate violence themselves."
She said that gangs regularly kill and maim children, and that reported incidents of sexual violence against minors has skyrocketed this year by 1,000 percent
Haiti has been gripped by instability since 2021, when President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated. Heavily armed gangs have sought to fill the vacuum, seizing up to 90 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and extending their violent grip to some areas beyond. The UN estimates that gangs now control 85 percent of the Port-au-Prince Metropolitan Area (PPMA).
The violence has created a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, displacing more than 700,000 people - about half of whom are children. Haiti is now the country with the largest number of people displaced by crime-related violence in the world.
A record 5.4 million Haitians are facing acute hunger. The World Food Programme says famine-like conditions exist, particularly in shelters for displaced people in Port-au-Prince. Children are particularly vulnerable, with at least 125,000 estimated to be acutely malnourished.
"Why is it easier for a young person to get a gun than it is to get food? That is the defining question of the moment," said Inga King, ambassador of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, speaking on behalf of CARICOM, the bloc of Caribbean countries.
"The protection of children must not be an option; it must be an absolute priority," said Jean Jean Roosevelt, a Haitian musician and UNICEF goodwill ambassador. Roosevelt, who works to prevent youth from being recruited by gangs, performed a song called "Watch Out Children" at the UN Monday.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Canadian Ambassador Bob Rae stressed the importance of stabilizing the country.
"If you don't have security, you don't have other things that are required to get us to peace, development and human rights," Rae said.
In June, a Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission began its first deployment of about 400 police from Kenya, which is leading the mission. Jamaica and Belize have also sent some police to help the embattled Haitian National Police subdue the gangs. The mission has been plagued by delays and funding and equipment shortages, and despite its presence, violence has recently escalated dramatically.
Rae said, without giving specifics on numbers or timing, that more police and equipment would be coming to the MSS.
In the meantime, Haiti's interim government has asked the United Nations Security Council to consider transforming the non-UN force into a UN peacekeeping mission, an option that UN Secretary-General António Guterres has made clear should be a last resort.
Transforming the mission would take months and require approval from the 15-nation Security Council. The United States and Ecuador are working on a draft council resolution that would ask Guterres to begin preparing a peacekeeping operation.
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Monday that the negotiations were continuing and that "they are not easy," because some Council members were not on board with the idea.
Since November 11, criminal gangs have attacked several neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince in an attempt to expand their territorial control, challenging the limited response capacity of the Haitian National Police (HNP) and the MSS mission. Since then, intensifying violence and insecurity have forced more than 50,000 people to flee their homes - the largest wave of displacement since January 2023, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). At least half are believed to be children.
Although the center of Port-au-Prince has experienced relative calm since November 25, the humanitarian situation for vulnerable populations, including the displaced, remains critical, according to the UN. The United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), which operates internal flights for local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and UN staff, resumed regular operations on November 25.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Monday that the situation in the capital, Port-au-Prince, remains fluid and volatile. Despite the challenges of persistent insecurity, humanitarian assistance continues with targeted interventions to address the most urgent needs of vulnerable populations, including health, emergency food, access to water and the fight against malnutrition.
A UN spokesperson said last week that in light of the significantly deteriorating security situation in Port-au-Prince, the United Nations was adapting its operations to ensure the continued delivery of critical humanitarian programs.
“Essential UN personnel, from agencies and the UN Mission, BINUH, our political mission, remain in Port-au-Prince to carry out critical activities. The UN continues to deliver programs outside the capital,” said Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
WFP continues to scale up its operations to meet the escalating food needs. The UN agency reached 1 million people in Haiti in November, the highest monthly coverage this year. Over the past week, WFP and its partners have delivered more than 350,000 hot meals to people recently displaced by violence in Port-au-Prince. WFP reached 50,000 people with these hot meals - the highest daily volume of hot meals ever provided by WFP in Haiti.
The UN agency is also scaling up assistance to people who are not displaced, but are facing emergency levels of hunger (IPC Phase 4) in the neighborhoods where they live, often in areas controlled by armed gangs. A large-scale distribution of rice, beans and cooking oil reaching nearly 150,000 people in and around the capital is currently wrapping up, with more rounds of similar distributions planned in the coming weeks.
WFP is also distributing rations to people facing emergency hunger outside the capital, including in the Artibonite and Nord Est departments, and is continuing school feeding programs that reach 470,000 children across Haiti. The UN agency plans to scale up food assistance operations in response to growing needs, targeting 1.85 million people with emergency assistance while supporting efforts to strengthen national resilient systems.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.