(2024-09) ACAPS Thematic Report - Haiti: Impact of Conflict on Children and Youth (30 September 2024)
Summary — This ACAPS thematic profile assesses how Haiti's escalating conflict affects children and youth, focusing on Port-au-Prince and Artibonite. Drawing on a secondary data review and three key informant interviews with child-focused NGOs, it documents an average of five children killed per week in the first half of 2024, widespread forced recruitment (children estimated at 30-50 percent of gang members), rising sexual violence, school closures, and a near 20 percent increase in severe acute malnutrition between January and July 2024, with nearly three million children in urgent need of humanitarian aid.
Key Findings
- An average of five children were killed per week in the first half of 2024, with around 500,000 children living in gang-controlled neighbourhoods and facing violence from both gangs and self-defence brigades.
- Children are estimated to constitute 30-50 percent of armed gang members, with forced recruitment rising as hunger and school closures erode protective environments.
- Nearly three million of Haiti's 4.3 million children were in urgent need of humanitarian aid by June 2024, amid displacement of almost 600,000 people between March and August, three times the 2023 level.
- Severe acute malnutrition among children rose almost 20 percent between January and July 2024 to nearly 125,000 cases, while 40 percent of inpatient facilities in Port-au-Prince were closed from May 2024.
- Education access collapsed with roughly 900 schools temporarily closed in Port-au-Prince and Artibonite affecting nearly 200,000 children, many schools converted to IDP shelters, and prolonged absence from school heightening recruitment and exploitation risks.
Full Description
ACAPS profiles the situation of children and youth amid Haiti's intensifying conflict since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, which worsened sharply in March 2024 when gangs attacked the country's two largest prisons, freeing over 4,000 inmates, besieged the airport, and forced Prime Minister Ariel Henry from office. With an estimated 150-200 gangs disputing control and over 5.1 million people (around 56 percent of the population) exposed to violence in 2024, the report focuses on the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area and Artibonite, where 73 percent of reported kidnappings occurred between April and June 2024. The methodology combines a secondary data review with three key informant interviews conducted in August 2024 with child protection NGOs, and the report flags major data gaps on child casualties, children with disabilities, and separated and unaccompanied children.
Protection findings are severe: an average of five children were killed per week in the first half of 2024, around 500,000 children live in gang-controlled neighbourhoods, and children are estimated at 30-50 percent of gang members, with hunger and the loss of schooling driving recruitment. Girls face sexual violence both as GBV victims, particularly in IDP settings, and within armed groups. Displacement compounds risks: nearly 600,000 people were displaced between March and August 2024, three times the level of the same period in 2023, and around 30,000 orphaned children were registered as of August 2024. Nearly three million of Haiti's 4.3 million children needed urgent humanitarian aid by June 2024. Education access collapsed, with about 900 schools closed and many others used as IDP shelters, while severe acute malnutrition rose almost 20 percent between January and July to nearly 125,000 children, and 40 percent of inpatient facilities in Port-au-Prince were closed from May 2024, deepening children's health vulnerability.
Notes
ACAPS thematic/anticipatory analysis