In Haiti, sexual violence against children has escalated significantly over the past year, with UNICEF warning that their bodies have become battlegrounds. The United Nations agency's spokesperson, James Elder, described the rise in incidents between 2023-2024 as "staggering" during a briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, highlighting that armed groups have subjected children in the Caribbean nation to unimaginable horrors.
In the capital Port-au-Prince, powerful gangs—armed primarily with weapons trafficked from the United States—have consolidated control over 85% of the city, forming a unified alliance. Sharing his observations from a recent trip to Haiti, Elder recounted the harrowing experience of a 16-year-old girl who was abducted, brutally assaulted, drugged, and raped by armed individuals. Fortunately, she was eventually rescued and provided refuge in a UNICEF-supported safe house.
Against a backdrop of escalating violence and widespread sexual assaults, the U.N. deployed additional forces in Haiti's capital to bolster security efforts. However, the future of this mission remains uncertain following a temporary freeze of $13 million in U.S. funding earlier in the week. Despite being endorsed by the U.N. Security Council, the mission—though not U.N.-led—has faced challenges in combating the gangs due to insufficient manpower.
According to U.N. figures, more than a million people in Haiti, with over half of them children, have been internally displaced due to ongoing violence. The dire conditions exacerbated by extreme poverty have driven many children to join armed groups, with a startling statistic indicating that up to half of these groups consist of minors, "some as young as eight years old," as highlighted by Elder.