Sexual violence against children in Haiti has surged in the last year and their bodies have been turned into “battlegrounds,” UNICEF warned on Friday.

Describing the increase between 2023-2024 as “staggering,” the spokesperson for the United Nations agency for children, James Elder, told reporters at the Palais des Nations in Geneva that armed groups have inflicted “unimaginable horrors on children” in the Caribbean country.

The concerns were raid as a fourth contingent of Kenyan police touched won in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince to help repel violent gangs as officials brushed off fears over a halt in some US funding to the UN-backed mission.

The 200 police officers from the East African country join more than 600 other Kenyans already working alongside Haiti’s National Police as part of a multinational force boosted by soldiers and police deployed by countries including Jamaica, Guatemala and El Salvador.

The latest deployment of Kenyan police comes two days after the US notified the United Nations that it was freezing $13.3 million slated for the mission as part of a sweeping freeze on foreign assistance imposed by US President Donald Trump.

“We are reaching close to our full strength so the mission can start giving results,” Godfrey Otunge, the mission’s force commander, said as he greeted the new officers at Haiti’s main international airport, which remains closed to commercial flights because of ongoing gang violence.

Otunge said in a statement on Wednesday that the amount frozen represents less than three per cent of ongoing assistance to the mission.

“I want to assure everyone, especially the people of Haiti, that the mission remains on track,” he said.

He noted that the US and other partner countries are still providing logistical, financial and equipment support, with support flights arriving almost daily.

“Both the Department of Defence and the Department of State remain actively engaged in (the mission’s) operations,” Otunge stated.

Amid surging violence and what the UN describes as “rampant sexual violence,” more the 200 Kenyan police officers arrived in Haiti’s capital on Thursday to reinforce a security mission. Its future has been in limbo since the US froze $13 million in funding on Tuesday, before passing a waiver to unlock a separate batch of funds.

Powerful gangs, armed with weapons largely trafficked from the United States, have united in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince under a common alliance. They control 85 per cent of the city, according to the UN.

Elder, who recently returned from a visit to Haiti, told reporters about a 16-year-old girl who was abducted by armed men and extensively beaten, drugged and raped. She was later released and found shelter in a UNICEF-supported safe house.

The security mission, approved by the UN Security Council but not led by the UN, has struggled to make headway in fighting gangs as its numbers remain far under target.

More than a million people, over half of them children, are displaced within Haiti due to ongoing violence, according to UN data. Extreme poverty has also pushed children into gangs, with up to half of all armed groups made up of minors, “some as young as eight years old,” Elder said.

The US State Department said it approved waivers for $40.7 million in foreign assistance to help the mission and Haitian police, including contracts to support forward operating bases, medical services and vehicle maintenance.

It noted that as recently as on Tuesday, the US delivered “much-needed heavy armoured equipment” to the mission and Haitian police.

 “The Haitian people need security,” said Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé as he pointed to a plane on the tarmac. “This is all the equipment that we promised is coming in.”

Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader warned on Thursday during a news conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Haiti represents a threat to the entire region, including the United States.

“There’s no time to lose,” he said as he called for more financial support for the mission. “Haiti is drowning.”

Abinader also called for more humanitarian aid to the violence-wracked country that shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, saying it would help relieve the ongoing crisis and halt a wave of migration that would affect the US and other countries.

“There is no Dominican solution to the Haitian crisis,” he said. “The leadership of the United States is essential and irreplaceable.”

Rubio said the US is committed to supporting the UN-backed mission led by Kenyan police and called for it to be broadened so it could effectively deal with gangs. He said the issue of Haiti cannot be ignored.

“It’s a tragedy, it’s horrifying and it needs to be dealt with. … We are going to help,” he said.

Rubio added, however: “I want to be clear; the future of Haiti belongs to the people of Haiti.”

William O’Neill, UN designated expert on Haiti, said on Thursday that the mission plays a crucial role in helping local officers establish security.

“The Haitian National Police are outnumbered and outgunned by the gangs,” he said. “Steady and predictable funding for the (mission) requires all states to contribute, especially those in the region. More stability in Haiti will reduce the pressure to migrate, which is in everyone’s interest.”

Earlier, Rubio spoke with Kenyan President William Ruto to thank him for his country’s leadership of the mission in Haiti, which remains fully operational, and Kenya’s role in promoting peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The mission, which began last year, is struggling with a lack of funding and personnel as gangs that control 85 per cent of the capital, Port-au-Prince, keep seizing more territory.

An ongoing, weeklong attack in an upscale community near the capital has killed some 150 people, Marie Yolène Gilles of the non-profit Fondasyon Je Klere told Magik9 radio station on Wednesday.

She said more than 100 homes also were set on fire.

The attack on Kenscoff that began January 27 has left more than 1,660 people homeless, according to the International Organization for Migration.

• A Tell / Reuters / AP report