They are barely 10 or 12 years old and are already part of the gangs that spread terror in Haiti. A report, published on Wednesday, October 9, by the organization Human Rights Watch (HRW), highlights the vulnerability of children in the face of the security crisis in which the Caribbean country of eleven million inhabitants continues to be immersed. In the absence of reliable data, the government and humanitarian NGOs estimate that“at least 30% of members of criminal groups are children”HRW specifies in this nine-page report.
The United Nations (UN) and most experts estimate the number of gangs present in Haiti at around two hundred. These would have a total of several thousand members. The Washington-based human rights organization believes that “hundreds, even thousands of children”They have joined armed gangs, in particular to try to escape the conditions of extreme deprivation in which they live. “With limited options for survival, many children in Haiti are drawn into criminal groups”said Nathalye Cotrino, a researcher in HRW’s Crisis and Conflict division, quoted in this report. Within gangs, minors “engage in illegal activities and expose oneself to serious risks”he added.
In July, an HRW team visited Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, 80% controlled by armed gangs. In the country, around 2.7 million people, including some 500,000 children, live in areas where bandits dominate, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). During numerous interviews conducted by HRW, miners confirmed that hunger was “the main factor” who forced them to join gangs. “I had nothing. I never went to school. “I was on the street, hungry, with nowhere to sleep, without clothes.”Mathis testifies. The day this 14-year-old orphan, who takes care of his younger brother, joined a gang, he gave him “1,150 gourdes (8 euros) and food”continue.
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The youngest recruits are not even 10 years old. “I joined the group when I was 8 years old, because I didn’t have parents.”explains Michel, a former member of the Grand-Ravine gang, which operates in a working-class neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. The little one received from the group “a Kalashnikov with a lot of bullets”. The teenager, now 14, says he left this gang after witnessing abuse. Since then, he has returned to surviving on the streets.
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