(United Nations) The number of children displaced by gang violence in Haiti has increased by 60 percent since March, the equivalent of “one child every minute,” UNICEF warned Monday, estimating the number of children affected at 300,000.
Displaced children make up more than half of the 600,000 people who have been forced to flee their usual residences due to endemic violence in the country, particularly in the capital Port-au-Prince, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund.
“The humanitarian catastrophe unfolding before our eyes is having a devastating impact on children. Displaced children are in desperate need of a safe and protective environment, as well as increased support and funding from the international community,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement.
Children and adolescents are doubly victims of violence: in addition to being forced to move, often without their families, to drop out of school and, in many cases, to not benefit from the minimum conditions of survival, they are subjected to sexual assault, exploitation and abuse.
Children are increasingly joining armed groups that are spreading terror in a country where 90% of the population lives in poverty and where three million children need humanitarian aid, UNICEF stresses.
“The needs in Haiti continue to grow, as do the dangers to children. Everyone has a role to play in changing the trajectory and ensuring that children are back in school, safe and have access to basic services,” she said.
Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has been mired for years in an economic, political and security crisis, exacerbated by the violence of gangs who control 80% of the capital.
A first contingent of Kenyan police arrived in Port-au-Prince last week as part of an international mission aimed at restoring security in the country.