UNICEF warns that number of children in Haiti displaced by violence has nearly doubled

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The number of children displaced by violence in Haiti has nearly doubled to 680,000, according to a new UNICEF report released Wednesday that warns minors are increasingly facing hunger, violence and recruitment by armed groups in the Caribbean nation.

Overall, around 6 million Haitians — half the country’s population — need humanitarian assistance, including more than 3.3 million children, UNICEF said.

“Without decisive action, the future of an entire generation is at stake,” the report stated.

Gang violence has displaced a record 1.3 million Haitians in recent years, with many cramming into makeshift shelters after their communities were razed.

The number of such shelters has doubled countrywide to 246 in the first six months of the year, according to the report. Of those, more than 30% lack infrastructure that would provide basic protection.

Many of the shelters are located in dangerous areas, with gangs controlling up to 90% of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital.

“In many areas, aid workers cannot safely reach communities, and families cannot travel to clinics, food distribution points or schools,” the report noted.

About 5.7 million people, including more than 1 million children, are facing acute hunger.

“This has to change,” said Geraldine Matha-Pierre, mother of two boys, ages 13 and 15. “I’m hungry. My kids are hungry.”

They have been living in a shelter for the past two years after gangs raided their community, and Matha-Pierre often calls friends to see if they have any food they can send over.

She used to sell plantains, bananas and other crops from Haiti’s countryside at a local market, but gang violence left her without a job to help feed her children and send them to school.

Her two boys have missed an entire school year, but Matha-Pierre said that a relative promised to help pay for them this year, with classes having just started.

At least one in four children in Haiti is out of school, with violence forcing more than 1,080 schools to close this year, according to UNICEF’s report.

During the last school year, more than 1,600 institutions were closed and 25 were occupied by armed groups, affecting more than 243,400 students and 7,548 teachers, UNICEF found.

Meanwhile, 84 schools this year are being used as makeshift shelters, with displacement disrupting education for nearly 500,000 school-age children, according to the report.

Jeanette Salomon’s 20-year-old son is among those stripped of an education.

“He’s not going to school, he’s not doing anything,” she said.

She already lost her 13-year-old son to a stray bullet that struck him in the head two years ago, and she doesn’t want gangs to recruit her oldest son.

“He has money, and I don’t know where he gets the money from,” she said. “I’m very protective of him, because that’s all I have left.”

The U.N. has verified more than 300 cases of armed groups recruiting and using children last year, almost double the previous year.

“Children as young as 10 are being forced to carry weapons, serve as lookouts or act as human shields,” the report found. “Girls, in particular, face brutal risks of sexual violence, coercion and exploitation by armed group members.”

Caroline Germain, who lives in the same shelter as Salomon, said that she also worries about her son. But he’s 17, and she can barely move and keep track of him after having lost her leg in the devastating 2010 earthquake.

“I hope he understands not to get involved in anything stupid,” she said. “There is no one to protect him.”

The UNICEF report warned that many of the 1.6 million women and children living in areas controlled by armed groups are largely cut off from aid.

The agency noted that its humanitarian appeal for children in Haiti is only 13% funded, and that programs to protect, feed and provide medical assistance to minors are limited.

“Children in Haiti are experiencing violence and displacement at a terrifying scale,” said Catherine Russell, UNICEF’s executive director. “Each time they are forced to flee, they lose not only their homes, but also their chance to go to school and simply to be children.”

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Dánica Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.