Haiti’s Children ‘Dragged Into Hell’ as Gang Violence Rages
Jillian Kestler-D'Amours Al Jazeera
Children accompany armed gang members in a march organised by gang boss Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Chérizier in the Delmas neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, May 10, 2024. (photo: Pedro Valtierra Anza/Reuters)
Many Haitian children face the stark choice of joining a gang or suffering from violence, poverty and hunger engulfing them.
The 30-year-old Haitian activist remembers that he started to learn the names of powerful gang leaders even as a child in primary school.
In the decades since, new gangs have formed, and new gang leaders — including some with international profiles — have taken over, as Haiti experienced multiple waves of political upheaval and uncertainty.
Now, the Caribbean nation is in the grips of a period of deadly gang violence and instability that many Haitians say is the worst they have ever seen.
Yet for Haiti’s children — the millions caught in the crossfire, no longer able to attend school, or pushed to join the armed gangs amid crippling poverty — the situation is especially dire.
The United Nations child rights agency UNICEF estimates that between 30 and 50 percent of the country’s gang members are now children.
“Our youth should be worrying about how to study, how to innovate, how to do research, how to contribute to society,” Chery told Al Jazeera in a phone interview from the capital Port-au-Prince.
“But us in Haiti, we have other worries as youth: It’s about what to eat. Can I go outside today? We live each day, 24 hours a day, hoping to see tomorrow.”
