2024 Deadliest Year for Children and Their Families in Haiti After Surge in Armed Group Violence

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Feb. 11, 2025)—An average of 24 children in Haiti were killed or injured every month in 2024, making it the deadliest year for children and their families since an escalation in violence three years ago, Save the Children said.

According to an analysis of UN verified data, armed groups in Haiti killed or injured 289 children last year—a 68% increase from 172 in 2023. However, the true number of child casualties is likely to be much higher.

More than one in three children killed in the last three months of 2024 were in armed groups.

Chantal Sylvie Imbeault, Save the Children’s Country Director in Haiti, said: “Children living in areas with active fighting cannot safely go to school, play outside, walk on the street or be in a car without the constant threat of violence. They cannot fall asleep at night without the nightmare that their neighborhood might be burnt down, and for many, being displaced once again.

“This relentless violence is shattering children's physical health and mental wellbeing. No child should live in constant fear.”

The crisis in Haiti spiraled in 2022 and continues to devastate children's lives nearly a year after violence escalated and a state of emergency was declared on March 3, 2024. Armed groups battling for territorial control have recruited hundreds of children, forcing some to kill, kidnap, and loot merely to survive.

The ongoing violence has displaced about one in eight children across the country. Many are now living in overcrowded schools converted into shelters or with host families, often without access to clean water, food, or healthcare.

In the past year alone, more than 700,000 people from a population of 11.7 million have been displaced due to armed groups. The violence has restricted aid delivery, caused prices to soar, and led to skyrocketing hunger levels across the country.

“We know security forces are encountering children recruited by armed groups and they are being caught in the crossfire. These children are victims of child rights violations and must be treated as children, not as militias. Their lives depend on it,” Chantal Sylvie Imbeault added.

A total of 7,839 people were killed or injured in Haiti in 2024, according to UN data, about 26% more than the number killed or injured the previous year.

Save the Children said the only way to truly protect children’s lives is to halt this violence and for all parties to do everything in their power to de-escalate the situation immediately and ensure life-saving humanitarian assistance and aid workers can reach those in need without delay and for the international community to urgently increase humanitarian funding for Haiti.

The child rights organization is calling on the Haitian National Police and all security forces deployed in Haiti for transparency and assurances to ensure the forces have adopted robust child protection measures, undergone pre-deployment training on child safeguarding, prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) and violence against women and girls, and have comprehensive plans for continued post-deployment training. The child rights organization is also calling on the international community to urgently increase humanitarian funding for Haiti.

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Notes to Editor:

According to an analysis of UN data, an average of 24 children were killed or injured every month in 2024. For the whole of 2024,184 children were killed (123 boys and 61 girls) and 105 children were injured (75 boys and 30 girls), a 68% increase in verified child casualties compared to 2023 when 115 children were killed, and 57 others were injured. A total of 7,839 people were killed or injured in Haiti in 2024, about 26% more than the number of people killed or injured the previous year. Of the 75 children killed in the last three months of 2024, some as young as 12 years old, 27 were in armed groups. human_rights_quarterly_report_-_october-december_2024_-_en.pdf