U.N. Reports Half of Haiti’s Armed Gangsters Are Children

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said on Monday that up to half of Haiti’s armed gang members are children, employed as “informants, cooks and sex slaves” in addition to being “forced to perpetrate violence.”

Russell told a U.N. forum on the Haiti crisis that gangs increased recruitment of children by 70 percent last year. She said reported incidents of sexual violence against children exploded by a “staggering one thousand percent” during the same period.

“Basic services like water, sanitation and health care have collapsed, putting children and families at increased risk of illness and disease, including cholera. In Port-au-Prince, many hospitals and health facilities have been forced to close due to safety concerns. And 1.5 million children have lost access to education,” she said.

“This is an abomination,” she declared.

Over half of the Haitians displaced by gang violence are children, and Russell said at least 125,000 children are suffering from acute malnourishment. 

“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,” responded the U.N. ambassador from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Inga King.

Russell said UNICEF is trying to provide humanitarian aid to Haiti’s children, but like other agencies and private groups, it has obtained only “limited access to areas controlled by armed groups.”

Russell called for “increased support from the international community,” noting that the U.N.’s 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan for Haiti has only been 43 percent funded, with shortages in the critical areas of child protection, education, and nutrition.

The UNICEF director also asked the Haitian police and U.N. support personnel to “prioritize the safety and protection of all children, including those who have been recruited and used by armed groups.” She urged putting “proper handover protocols” in place so that child gang members encountered by police and military forces could be “safely transferred to civilian child protection actors for their recovery and reintegration.”

The U.N. said the most important takeaway from Monday’s conference was that children are “bearing the brunt” of the Haiti crisis.

“The children of Haiti are displaced. They are malnourished. They live in fear, their neighborhoods controlled by armed groups,” said U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher.

Wanja Kaaria, director of World Food Program (WFP) operations for Haiti, said her agency has delivered “record amounts of food assistance to Haitians in Port-au-Prince and across the country these past few months.”

As Russell pointed out, delivering food to Haiti is not the same thing as feeding desperate Haitians because the gangs interfere with humanitarian deliveries. The situation is so unstable that even donors with the best of intentions are reluctant to pour more money into Haiti relief until the security situation is stabilized – but both regional and world powers are even more reluctant to put boots on the ground in Haiti to fight the gangs.

“The challenges Haiti faces are immense, but one truth is undeniable: no progress can be made without addressing the pervasive insecurity caused by armed gangs,” U.N. Special Representative Maria Isabel Salvador said on Monday.

Efforts to stabilize Haiti suffered another blow on Tuesday, when a Haitian judge summoned three members of the Transitional Presidential Council to answer questions in a corruption case. The three officials stand accused of extracting bribes from the president of the National Credit Bank in exchange for allowing him to retain his position under the transitional government.

Just three weeks ago, the transitional council booted Prime Minister Garry Conille from his post, replacing him with businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aime. This turmoil did not inspire confidence among donors or investors whose support will be vital for lifting Haiti out of poverty and chaos.

Direct international support for Haitian police against the gangs remains minimal, with just a handful of troops on the ground, mostly police officers from Kenya. The U.N. long ago authorized deployment of 2,500 international police, but only about 430 have actually taken to the streets.

Haiti formally requested a full U.N. peacekeeping intervention in late October, with support from the U.S. government. The U.N. Security Council (UNSC) approved the request, with abstentions from Russia and China. Kenyan President William Ruto said on October he would send another 600 officers to Haiti after a surge in gang violence, but they have not yet arrived.

Russell’s grim presentation to the U.N. conference on Monday highlights a major stumbling block for Haitian intervention: no nation wants its troops to end up exchanging gunfire with armed children.