Right now, we estimate that up to half of all armed gang members are children, some as young as eight years old, says Unicef's Haiti representative Geetanjali Narayan to reporters in Geneva.
Many are forced into the gang environment, according to the UN's children's fund Unicef. Others join out of sheer desperation in poor and violent Haiti.
Depending on age and gender, the children are given different roles within the gangs. The youngest boys are used as messengers or informants, the youngest girls for household chores. The older they get, the more active roles they take on in the gang's violence.
At that age, children's brains are still forming. They have not developed their understanding of the world. To then be part of an armed gang where you are constantly surrounded by violence – and where you yourself may be forced to commit violence – has a profound impact on the child, says Narayan.
