The Unit­ed Na­tions Chil­dren’s Fund (UNICEF) says the num­ber of chil­dren be­ing re­cruit­ed in­to armed groups across Haiti has in­creased by 70 per cent over the past year.

It said the un­prece­dent­ed spike al­so re­veals the alarm­ing de­te­ri­o­ra­tion of child pro­tec­tion amid es­ca­lat­ing vi­o­lence in the Caribbean na­tion.

Ac­cord­ing to the lat­est es­ti­mates, chil­dren now com­prise up to half of all armed group mem­bers, with re­cruit­ment dri­ven by wide­spread pover­ty, lack of ed­u­ca­tion and col­lapse of es­sen­tial ser­vices.

“Chil­dren in Haiti are trapped in a vi­cious cy­cle – re­cruit­ed in­to the very armed groups that are fu­elling their des­per­a­tion, and the num­bers are grow­ing,” said UNICEF Ex­ec­u­tive Di­rec­tor Cather­ine Rus­sell, not­ing that “chaos and hor­ror have be­come part of dai­ly life”.

Ac­cord­ing to UNICEF, the sit­u­a­tion in the cap­i­tal, Port-au-Prince, is sig­nif­i­cant­ly alarm­ing, with 1.2 mil­lion chil­dren liv­ing un­der con­stant threat of armed vi­o­lence. An es­ti­mat­ed 25 per cent of all 703,000 in­ter­nal­ly dis­placed per­sons are chil­dren, liv­ing un­der dire con­di­tions and ex­posed to mul­ti­ple threats.

The de­te­ri­o­rat­ing se­cu­ri­ty sit­u­a­tion has led to a sharp rise in vi­o­lence against Haiti’s most vul­ner­a­ble pop­u­la­tions. Sex­u­al vi­o­lence and rape have be­come ram­pant, with re­ports from the Of­fice of the UN Spe­cial Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al for Chil­dren and Armed Con­flict in­di­cat­ing a ten­fold in­crease in chil­dren ex­posed to sex­u­al vi­o­lence this year alone.

This year, UNICEF pro­vid­ed sup­port ser­vices, in­clud­ing psy­choso­cial sup­port and com­mu­ni­ty sen­si­ti­za­tion to over 25,000 peo­ple af­fect­ed by sex­u­al and gen­der-based vi­o­lence in 2024.

In re­sponse to the pro­tec­tion cri­sis fac­ing chil­dren re­cruit­ed by armed groups or at risk of re­cruit­ment, UNICEF has im­ple­ment­ed sev­er­al ini­tia­tives in­clud­ing train­ing se­cu­ri­ty forces and civ­il so­ci­ety or­gan­i­sa­tions on child pro­tec­tion mea­sures.

They al­so pro­vide care for for­mer child sol­diers, along with psy­cho-so­cial sup­port and fam­i­ly re­uni­fi­ca­tion ser­vices.

UNICEF is call­ing on all par­ties in Haiti to pri­ori­tise child pro­tec­tion, sup­port the im­me­di­ate re­lease of re­cruit­ed chil­dren and en­sure their rights are cen­tral to any agree­ments.

“Chil­dren in many parts of Haiti are sub­ject­ed to atroc­i­ties no child should ever have to ex­pe­ri­ence,” Rus­sell said, adding that it “leaves them with psy­cho­log­i­cal and emo­tion­al scars that might haunt them for a life­time”. —PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (CMC)