Children and women have become “targets” of Haitian gangs and are increasingly involved in violent incidents that include crimes, injuries, rapes and abductions, UNICEF reported on Thursday.
United Nations data indicate that between September 2020 and February 2021, the number of children and women victims of armed attacks attributed to criminal gangs increased significantly in Haiti, from 45 to 73 incidents, including crimes, injuries, rapes and abductions.
“Children, girls and women in Haiti are no longer simply victims of criminal gangs, but are increasingly becoming their targets,” warned the regional director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for Latin America and the Caribbean. Jean Gough.
Just days ago, the UN agency said, armed men broke into an orphanage and raped two girls, aged 13 and 14, and a 27-year-old woman in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince.
The incident left 36 children traumatized, said UNICEF, which, along with the Haitian child protection authority IBESR and several partner NGOs, provided immediate medical and psychosocial care to victims and other minors in the orphanage.
“Unicef strongly condemns this violent act of contempt, demands that the perpetrators be brought to justice and urges the Haitian authorities to redouble their efforts to establish alternative family care options instead of orphanages,” the UN said.
He also called on “all actors to refrain from attacking children, adolescents and women” and called on “the new Haitian government to take steps to stop gang violence against children.”
BANDS “EXTEND THEIR KINGDOM OF TERROR”
Gough denounced that “week after week, Haitian criminal gangs are spreading their reign of terror and fear to more families and communities.”
UNICEF explained that during the 2019-2020 school year, approximately 60% of all Haitian schools were closed for 60 days due to violent social unrest.
In 2021, “the growing violence and insecurity in the gang has prevented many boys and girls from going to classrooms in different urban areas in and around Port-au-Prince.”
“Gough violence must be stopped,” Gough said, reiterating that “keeping children safe should be one of the new priorities of the new Haitian government.”
THE CRISIS IN HAITI
Haiti’s new prime minister, Claude Joseph, was sworn in on Wednesday, hours after his predecessor, Joseph Jouthe, resigned.
Joseph, who was foreign minister, was sworn in without a vote by parliament, a procedure imposed by the Constitution, as the Legislative Assembly has been closed since January 2020 – due to the postponement of elections scheduled for 2019 – and since then President Jovenel Moise governs by decree .
Haiti is facing a new crisis that includes an open confrontation between Moses and the opposition, which demands his departure, in addition to a situation of insecurity, so that armed gangs dominate the areas of Port-au-Prince, while increasing abductions to ask for salvation increases.