A 16-year-old girl has been drugged, beaten and raped for a month in a warehouse in Haiti, amid a huge increase of 1,000% of sexual violence against children while the island ravaged by crime is taken over by gangs.
Spokesman James Elder of Unicef told reporters in Geneva that the 16-year-old girl Rosaline was abducted by armed men and was taken to a warehouse, together with other young girls.
“There she was extensively defeated,” he said.
“She was then drugged and in the course of what she believes as a month, she was ruthlessly raped.
“When the armed group realized that Rosaline had no one to pay her abduction of ransom, she was released.”
Sexual violence to children in Violent Haiti became ten times last year, said the UN children's office.
Haiti has been entangled by political instability for decades, worsened in recent years by criminal gangs that have become more powerful.
Bendes now check 85 percent of the capital Port -u -Prince and children – some as young as eight years old – now half of all armed groups form, Unicef said.
Haiti has been entangled by political instability for decades and forced extreme action by military and police services
Gangs now check 85 percent of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince
“A stunning increase of 1,000 percent in sexual violence against children in Haiti has changed their bodies in battlefields,” said Elder.
“The ten -time turnout, registered from 2023 to last year, is because armed groups inflict unimaginable horrors to children.”
Haiti has no president or parliament and is ruled by a transitional organ, which has difficulty managing extreme violence related to criminal gangs, poverty and other challenges.
More than 5,600 people were killed in Haiti last year as a result of Bendegeweld, about a thousand more than in 2023, according to the UN.
More than a million Haitians are forced to flee their homes, three times as much as a year ago.
“The suffering is huge,” said Elder, adding that a full “1.2 million children live under the constant threat of armed violence” in the country.
Armed gangs now check 85 percent of Port-au-Prince, in what he described as 'an amazing case of uncertainty in a capital'.
Last year alone, children's recruitment in armed groups rose by 70 percent, he said.
“Many are taken by violence,” he said, while others “were manipulated or driven by extreme poverty.”
“It's a deadly cycle: children are recruited in the groups that feed their own suffering.”
