Children in Haiti subjected to brutal gang violence, report says

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Gangs in Haiti are guilty of widespread crimes against children, including rape and killing, Amnesty International has said.

In a new report published on Wednesday, the NGO said that escalating violence in the country “has been nothing short of an attack on childhood” itself.

The security situation in Haiti worsened significantly after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021. Gangs now control swathes of the country, including the majority of the capital Port-au-Prince.

More than 1 million children are thought to be living in areas controlled by gangs.

Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard accused gangs of threatening, beating, raping and killing children.

“The lives of far too many children in Haiti are being wrecked, and they have nowhere to go for protection or justice,” Callamard said.

“They are chased and at times killed by self-defence groups, while the authorities arbitrarily detain them. Childhood is being stolen.”

As part of the NGO’s investigation, researchers interviewed 112 people, including 51 children, and documented the cases of 18 girls who had been sexually abused by gang members.

Sexual violence against children in Haiti has risen by 1,000% since 2023, according to a recent report by Unicef.

“There is no police…The only chief in town are the gang members,” said one girl who was kidnapped and raped in 2023.

Another fell pregnant after five men had raped her. “It destroyed me…I have nobody to help me with the baby,” she said.

Gangs have also recruited many children, exploiting their fear and their hunger.

One 12-year-old boy said he was forced to be an informant for the Grand Ravine gang. “If I didn’t do it, they would have killed me.”

Such children then run the risk of being targeted by self-defence groups, who are known to have killed children thought to be associated with gangs.

Stray bullets have also maimed and killed children. A 14-year-old girl, whose brother was killed by a stray bullet, was herself hit in the face by one. “It’s not a calm area. There is trouble all the time. There is so much gunfire. I can’t stand the gunfire.”

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Amnesty International called on the Haitian government and international donors to work together on a plan to protect children. The massive flow of weapons into Haiti must also be stopped, it said.

“The international community cannot continue to make empty promises,” the report said.

“The country needs immediate and sustained technical and financial assistance to rescue a generation of boys and girls from being lost to repeated cycles of gang violence,” it added.

At least 5,600 people were killed in Haiti in 2024, an increase of more than 1,000 from the previous year. Another 2,212 people were injured and 1,494 kidnapped.

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Meanwhile, more than 5.5 million Haitians are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.