Armed groups were responsible for an average of 24 minors killed each month, an increase of 68 percent compared to the 172 children killed in 2023.
The NGO -cited by the newspaper Le Facteur Haiti- explained that the real number of child victims is probably much higher, and said that more than one in three children killed in the last three months of 2024 belonged to criminal gangs.
Chantal Sylvie, director of Save the Children in Haiti, lamented that children living in conflict zones cannot attend school, play outdoors and walk freely in the streets, as they live in constant threat to their lives.
At night, Sylvie said, they cannot sleep because they are worried that their house will be burned down and they will become displaced again. All this suffering affects their physical and mental health. Sylvie denounced that gangs recruited hundreds of children, forcing them to loot, kidnap and even kill in order to survive.
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