UNITED NATIONS, Feb 12 (IPS) – As ongoing gang violence and unrest bring down the living conditions in Haiti, humanitarian groups sound the alarm on human rights violations and the increasing challenges they dace in providing relief efforts.
On February 7, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) issued a press release in which they detailed the deterioration of living conditions in Haiti, particularly as it impacts young girls.
“A staggering 1,000 per cent rise in sexual violence against children in Haiti has turned their bodies into battlegrounds. The 10-fold rise, recorded from 2023 to last year, comes as armed groups inflict unimaginable horrors on children,” said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder. He added that there was instances of young girls being abducted, beaten, drugged, raped, and held for ransom by gang members.
On January 22, Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), released an informational animated video which sheds light on the daily lives of survivors of abuse in Haiti. In this video, it is stated that roughly 4,200 Haitian women were subjected to sexual assault last year, marking a 140 percent increase from 2022.
Life for survivors in Haiti has been described as very difficult as the country has limited psychosocial and medical resources. There are only a few emergency shelters that provide care for survivors, which are strained due to a high volume of patients. Survivors of sexual violence are often forced to reside in displacement camps or public streets, with some even returning back to the site of their assaults.
Heightened insecurity has made it difficult for most to seek justice or gain orders of protection. Additionally, survivors are often not granted legal or economic assistance due to the wide scale of needs.
“We see again and again that survivors cannot return safely to their regular lives, they often have no safe space to go to. So emergency shelter or safe houses is the biggest need cited by survivors of sexual violence,” said Diana Manilla Arroyo, the MSF head of mission in Haiti.
According to a report from the United Nations (UN), Haiti’s legal system is currently paralyzed. Despite the efforts of Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé to revamp the judicial system in 2024, progress on the apprehension of perpetrators has been slow. As of now, no arrests have been made.
Currently, gangs control approximately 85 percent of Port-Au-Prince. Approximately 1.2 million children are under constant threat of armed violence. In 2024 alone, there was a 70 percent increase in child recruitments into gangs. Half of all gang members are estimated to be children, with some as young as eight years old.
This has been attributed to the collapse of social services for children in Haiti, particularly education. According to UNICEF, over 300,000 children have experienced disruptions in their education due to repeated displacement and widespread insecurity. Due to not having ways to make income or access protection services, many Haitian children join armed groups to avoid violence.
“Many are taken by force. Others are manipulated or driven by extreme poverty. It’s a lethal cycle: Children are recruited into the groups that fuel their own suffering,” said Elder.
UNICEF’s Chief of Child Survival and Development for Haiti, Gianluca Flamigni, visited a displacement shelter in 2025 to speak with displaced communities about their experiences. Dieussica, a 13-year old Haitian girl residing in the shelter, told Flamigni that children desperately “need education. Too many young people are carrying weapons.”
Following the gang attacks in Kenscoff in late January, rates of displacement have soared. According to figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a total of 3,139 people have been displaced from these attacks alone. Over 1 million people have been displaced in 2024, 500,000 of which are children. Additionally, rates of displacement in Port-Au-Prince have increased by approximately 87 percent since 2023.
Rates of violence have also skyrocketed in the past year. According to estimates from Save the Children, 2024 was the deadliest year for children and their families since the eruption of gang violence in 2022. Roughly 289 children were killed last year, marking a 68 percent increase from 2023. An average of 24 children were killed in each month of 2024.
Humanitarian operations have seen numerous restrictions in 2024 and 2025. In the last quarter of 2024, MSF, which has been instrumental in providing direct medical assistance to Haitians, announced that they had to temporarily halt operations following a series of attacks on medical personnel. Although MSF resumed services 22 days later, Haiti continued to face a shortage of medical supplies and staff.
Currently, the UN’s 674 million dollar response fund for Haiti has only been 42 percent funded. To adequately provide support for the millions of Haitians in the midst of a dire humanitarian crisis, it is imperative that aid organizations are able to scale up responses. The UN Security Council continues to urge the international community to increase protection services.
IPS UN Bureau Report
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© Inter Press Service (2025) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
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