Reuters and Prensa Latina

The newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, August 14, 2024, p. 26

Port-au-Prince. At least five Haitian children have been killed or injured each week so far in 2024, Save the Children reported yesterday, urging the United Nations (UN) and security forces to do more to protect children from crossfire and gang violence.

Haiti requested a security mission in 2022 to help its police fight violent gangs that have taken over much of the capital, committing indiscriminate killings, gang rapes, extortion and recruiting minors.

But progress has been slow and so far only 400 Kenyan police have been deployed to Haiti to lead a UN-sanctioned mission, while other countries have dragged their feet on pledges of funds, personnel and armoured vehicles.

Citing UN data, Save the Children said at least 131 children were killed or injured in the first six months of 2024, often by stray bullets or reprisals for supporting rival gangs or police, and said the real numbers were likely much higher.

Behind these chilling figures are real children who have been seriously injured or killed.lamented Chantal Sylvie Imbeault, director of the charity in Haiti.

Entire neighborhoods have been burned down, kidnappings and sexual assaults are rampant, and children are either targeted directly or caught in the crossfire.

Save the Children called on the UN Security Council to put an end to impunity of those who commit abuse against children and recruit them for gangs, and called all parties in Haiti to allow the immediate, sustained and unhindered passage of humanitarian aid.

Schools are due to reopen on October 1, but many in the capital have been turned into makeshift refugee camps as the number of people internally displaced by the conflict approaches 600,000.

In other news, Haiti’s transitional Prime Minister Garry Conille dismissed the chairman of the board of directors of the National Credit Bank, Raoul Pascal Pierre-Louis.

Pierre-Louis’ lawyer, Sonet Saint-Louis, sent a letter to the prime minister asking him to reconsider the decision, which comes after an attempted corruption scandal.

Pierre-Louis accused the advisors of the Transitional Presidential Council (CPT) Gérald Gilles, Emmanuel Vertilaire and Smith Augustin, of having demanded 100 million gourdes (757,575 dollars) from him to keep his job, an accusation rejected by the three, recalled the digital newspaper. Free Haiti.

Just a few weeks after the CPT was established, its first scandal broke out, and the CPT’s advisors are in the crosshairs of the Anti-Corruption Unit.

Pierre-Louis immediately wrote a letter with all the details to Conille, who promised to combat this problem upon assuming his duties.