Shelters for street children in Port-au-Prince are emptying out due to gangs, who are recruiting minors to participate in the < strong>urban war which has been terrorizing the capital of Haiti for a month.
Since the escalation of the sociopolitical and economic crisis marked by the multiplication of armed groups, kidnappings and massacres, few children are seen on the streets of the metropolitan area of the Haitian capital.
“The soldiers of the armed groups come to recruit us at night,” a minor who swarms through the central Champ de Mars square, near the National Palace and where there have always been many street children.
In that area, a reception center for these minors was opened in 2013, the first of its kind within a rehabilitation program, but which is now closed. practically empty and abandoned.
“There are about 48 people here. They spend the day somewhere else and come every night to sleep,” says one of the adults who spends the night in the place designed to accommodate up to 400 people.
FORCED RECRUITMENT< /strong>
This man affirms that the Ti Lapli, Bougoy and 100 Jours armed gangs are among those that recruit minors in this area.
According to the sociologist Djems Olivier, from the University of the State of Haiti, the phenomenon is not new, since since the year 2000 the armed groups have used the children.
“These are children who are used as human shields or as scouts (…) The level of criminality is higher in a child soldier than in a child soldier. a grown soldier”, he considered.
Olivier points out that “children are less and less present on the streets”, to add that this absence is not to join other shelters, much less to be helped by NGOs or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Social.
A FADED HOPE
Very few children in the yard, young people guarding the entrance, voodoo music, cigarettes and drugs coming and going. In the back, men and women bathe naked. The patio offers the image of an abandoned space where the grass is overgrown. everywhere.
That is the reality today of the reception center for street children that opened nine years ago. its doors and now it is in a deplorable situation.
The dormitories have been converted into public toilets with a repulsive smell, there is rubbish of all kinds on the floor and there is no electricity.< /p>
The area is under the control of the G9 Fanmi e Alye, one of the most powerful armed gangs in Haiti, led by former police officer Jimmy Cherizier, nicknamed Barbecue.
” to waste materials, the rest of us did the rest”, confesses a 20-year-old who grew up in the shelter.
EXTREME GANGS VIOLENCE
In mid-May, the UN confirmed that there are reports of the recruitment of child soldiers who participated in the wave of violence unleashed on April 24. that, among the acts of extreme violence recorded in the last month, there have been numerous murders ofchildren suspected of being informants for rival gangs.
According to Gangs also reportedly use sexual violence, including gang rape of children as young as 10, to terrorize and intimidate local populations living in areas controlled by rival gangs. .
Between April 24 and May 16, at least 92 civilians and 96 suspected gang members were killed in coordinated armed attacks in Port-au-Prince, according to estimates. of the UN.
Another 113 people were injured and 12 were reported missing, but the real number of people killed could be much higher.