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There has been an “alarm­ing in­crease” in the num­ber of chil­dren be­ing re­cruit­ed in­to gangs in Haiti with “dev­as­tat­ing con­se­quences” for chil­dren, fam­i­lies and so­ci­ety, the Unit­ed Na­tions re­port­ed on Fri­day.

It said that the French-speak­ing Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (CARI­COM) coun­try is in the grip of a deep­en­ing se­cu­ri­ty, hu­man­i­tar­i­an and gov­er­nance cri­sis and that armed gangs con­trol large swathes of the cap­i­tal, Port-au-Prince and be­yond, dis­plac­ing fam­i­lies and re­strict­ing ac­cess to schools, health­care and ba­sic ser­vices.

Pover­ty is wors­en­ing for the most vul­ner­a­ble fam­i­lies, and chil­dren are in­creas­ing­ly sus­cep­ti­ble to gang re­cruit­ment, in or­der to earn mon­ey.