Displaced women and girls now live in makeshift shelters or informal camps where violence stalks them at every turn. For too many, displacement has not meant safety, it has only deepened their trauma
In Haiti today, armed groups have turned the country’s capital into a battlefield, and women and girls are on the front lines. With nearly 85% of Port-au-Prince now under gang control, more than one million people have been forced to flee their homes.
Displaced women and girls now live in makeshift shelters or informal camps where violence stalks them at every turn. For too many, displacement has not meant safety, it has only deepened their trauma.
Rape is being used as a weapon of war.
The number of sexual assaults against children alone has risen by 1,000% between 2023 and 2024, according to the latest figures from the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
We hear stories of unimaginable cruelty: young girls abducted, drugged, beaten, and repeatedly raped by gang members.
Régine was raped by four men as she attempted to return to her home in Solino to retrieve her identity documents, after gangs had taken control of the area. She was eventually rescued by police officers who intervened during a confrontation with the gangs. But the physical and emotional scars of that attack remain etched into her life.
This is not isolated. On the contrary, these are systemic acts of war.The number of sexual assaults against children alone has risen by 1,000% between 2023 and 2024, according to the latest figures from the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
Sexual violence is being used deliberately to instill fear, dominate communities, and assert territorial control. Women are attacked in their homes, in public transportation, while shopping in the market, or simply walking down the street.
And yet, the silence is deafening.
Nearly 40% of Haitian women experience sexual or physical violence in their lifetime and most never report it. Impunity reigns. Survivors are left without access to justice, medical care, or even basic dignity. The humanitarian response remains woefully underfunded. Only a fraction of needed resources is going toward protection services for women and girls.
Meanwhile, the recruitment of children by gangs has surged by 70% this year, and some are as young as eight years old. Girls, especially, are exposed to sexual slavery under the guise of gang affiliation. The toll on their futures is incalculable.
Despite these horrors, international attention is fading. Haiti is once again being abandoned.
We are told there is «no political will», that solutions are «too complicated». But for the women and girls trapped in a daily nightmare of sexual violence and terror, delay is not an option. The cost of inaction is written on their bodies.
It is time for a coordinated international and national response that puts women and girls at the center of humanitarian and security planning. This must include, first, urgent funding for women-led organizations providing medical care, psychosocial support, legal aid, and safe shelter. Then, concrete measures to combat impunity and hold perpetrators accountable. Finally, strong political support for Haitian women’s participation in decision-making – in politics, peacebuilding, and recovery.
We cannot afford to look away. Haiti’s crisis is not just a humanitarian catastrophe, it is a war on women and girls.
In the face of this, Haitian women are not staying silent. They are organizing, resisting, and fighting to protect their communities. But they cannot, should not, and must not do it alone.
Let us act with urgency, not pity. With commitment, not complacency. The safety, dignity, and future of an entire generation depend on it.
By : Angeline Annesteus
ActionAid Haiti Country Director
Cover | Three women sitting with their backs turned. Sources : DW
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