“Children in Haiti are trapped in a vicious cycle — recruited into the very armed groups that are fueling their desperation, and the numbers are growing,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “This unacceptable trend must be reversed by ensuring children’s safety and welfare are prioritized by all parties.”

The Associated Press writes that the increase in child members is related to the worsening of poverty in the country, increasing violence, and political instability.

There is a level of underestimation of the power of the gangs, not only the way they operate, but their capacity to hold the terrain, their capacity to know the terrain, their capacity to fight or not fight,