Haiti's gangs are turning to starving children to strengthen their ranks

After months of brutal gang violence, thousands of murders and the ousting of a government, Haiti is facing another heartbreaking issue that will likely extend the Caribbean island nation’s misery for another generation. Testimonies collected by Amnesty International have revealed how Haiti’s armed gangs are signing up hundreds of children.

Ana Piquer, Americas Director at Amnesty International, say: “We have documented heartbreaking stories of children forced to work for gangs: from arranging deliveries to gathering information and carrying out household chores under the threat of violence.”

Boys as young as six are forced to work as lookouts, build street barriers, are trained to use machine guns and are ordered to participate in kidnappings and other violent crimes. Girls owned by gangs are subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence by older male gang members, according to Piquer.

There are currently approximately 200 armed gangs in Haiti control approximately 90% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and large parts of the country are ungovernable. The collapse of law and order has allowed gang leaders such as Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier to engage terrible atrocities largely undisputed.

The involvement of children in gangs in Haiti is not exactly new. According to UNICEF, between 30% and 50% of children in Haiti are involved in armed groups in some capacity. There are various socio-economic explanations for this.

A Haitian child covers his head as a fire rages behind him. — A child covers his head during protests in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in November 2018.
Estailove St-Val / EPA

Haiti was once the wealthiest European colony in the Americas – and staged the only successful slave revolt against its French colonial masters before declaring independence in 1804. But modern Haiti is a failed state where more than… half the population now live below the World Bank poverty line.

According to figures published by the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Haiti has the highest prevalence of food insecurity in Latin America and the Caribbean. A third of the population goes hungry every day.

Impoverishment and dire poverty have made the population desperate. Of limited options To survive, many children in Haiti become involved in criminal groups. Sometimes the promise of a single meal can be enough attract a child to join a gang.

That said, the breakdown of law and order across the country has undoubtedly encouraged gangs to increase their recruitment of children. As in most conflict zones, once indoctrinated, child soldiers are cheap and deadly fighters.

There is also another specific social factor that contributes to some parents turning a blind eye to their children joining the gangs. The widespread recruitment of children by gangs can be linked to a Haitian socio-economic practice restaveks.

A restavekwhich is Creole for “stay with,” is a child given away by impoverished parents with the unwritten agreement that they will be fed, cared for, and not starve to death. It has become a form of modern slavery.

The End slavery now project has found that “more than 300,000 children are victims of domestic slavery” in Haiti today. Many of these children regularly experience forms of physical and sexual violence.

A fixed pattern

Child sex slavery and sexual abuse are common occurrences in societies torn apart civil war. This is more likely to occur in environments where the governance process is weak or non-existent. This situation promotes conditions of impunity, leading various actors involved in conflicts to sexually exploit children.

There is an established pattern of predatory sexual slavery of children in Haiti. After the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010 and the subsequent cholera epidemic, some members of the UN peacekeeping force stationed in the country were found to have committed child sex.

In 2017, there was an Associated Press investigation revealed at least 134 Sri Lankan peacekeepers were involved. It’s been like that documented that girls as young as 11 were sexually abused and impregnated by the peacekeepers, then abandoned to raise their children alone. Impoverished and starving Haitian children fell victim to this racket in exchange for scraps of leftover food from the peacekeepers.

According to his own account, this was the UN peacekeeping force responsible for “transactional sex” during her activities in the country.

In 2019, UN Secretary General António Guterres said branded violence against children as a “silent emergency” of our time. Unfortunately, despite the urgency of Guterres’ statement, not much is being done to address this challenge.

An armed Haitian man looks down a deserted street. — An armed gang member in the empty streets of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.
ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock photo

There are many existential challenges facing Haiti. Some of them are homegrown, such as the prevalence of gangs and their terror techniques.

But because it sits on a geological fault line in a region prone to severe storms, Haiti is particularly vulnerable prone to natural disasters. A devastating earthquake in 2010 and a cholera epidemic in 2016 weakened the country. domino effects will take decades.

To make matters worse, Haiti also suffers from a shortage of compassion. There is a lack of real involvement from the international community contributed led to the erosion of Haitian civil society and left the population at the mercy of gang violence.

Even the Kenyan-led police mission tasked with restoring order is suffering insufficient funding and equipmentwhich has affected its operational capacity. Only approximately $400 million (£308 million) of the $600 million originally committed to the mission has materialized, with the US bearing a disproportionate financial burden.

The international community has been preoccupied with more high-profile conflicts elsewhere and appears to have little interest in the horrors unfolding under the tropical sun in the distant Caribbean.