The recruitment of children by armed groups in Haiti tripled last year as poverty and violence deepens across the troubled Caribbean country, according to a new UNICEF report released Thursday.
The surge comes as gang violence displaces a record 1.4 million people across Haiti — more than half of them children whom experts say are left exposed and vulnerable.
“The extent of the increase definitely is a surprise,” said Geeta Narayan, UNICEF’s representative in Haiti. “That’s devastating.”
