“Stunning” increase in sexual abuse over children in Haiti

The Haiti gang rule has led to a stunning increase in sexual abuse of children, warned the United Nation’s Children’s Organization.

The Caribbean island has been in the grip of violent gangs for several years, which treat the population with relentless brutality, UNICEF said.

Sexual abuse of children has increased by 1000% since 2023, turning their bodies “into battlefields,” said spokesman James Elder.

UNICEF estimates that 85% of the Port-O-Prem capital’s capital is under the control of gangs. More than one million children live with a constant threat of violence.

Mr. Elder gave an example of a 16-year-old girl who had left home to shop and was then seized by armed men. She was beaten, drugs and repeatedly raped.

She was detained for about a month, he said, until the band released her, when they realized that her family had no money to pay ransom. Excitement abductions are common in Haiti.

She is now in the UN shelter with dozens of other girls who receive care.

The control of the gang in the port-O-Prince has led to an almost complete breakdown of the law and the order, the collapse of health services and the emergence of a crisis of food security.

More than 5,600 people were killed in violence with bands only last year.

The Transitional Presidential Council of Haiti, the body designed to organize elections and restore democratic order seems to be in trouble.

The Council replaced the temporary Prime Minister in November, but made little progress towards organizing long-term elections.

Children are also recruited by gangs, sometimes forcibly, UNICEF said.

The organization came across members of a children’s band, who are eight years old.

The foundations that Haitian children need a normal childhood, even if they are home with their families, do not exist, UNICEF said. Schools and hospitals are almost not functioning and tens of thousands of children are not in school.

Unicef ​​has created mobile safe spaces in Haiti to try to support children and prevent sexual abuse.

But last year, when he appealed $ 221.4 million ($ 177.8 million) to finance his work in Haiti, he received only a quarter of that.

He is now afraid that with the freezing of the United States for foreign help affecting humanitarian projects around the world, Haiti’s needs will be overlooked.