VIOLENCE in Haiti has displaced more than 300,000 children since March, according to the United Nations children’s agency.

Children make up more than half of the nearly 580,000 people who have become homeless in the last four months. 

“The humanitarian catastrophe unfolding before our eyes is taking a devastating toll on children,” Unicef executive director Catherine Russell said on Tuesday.

“Displaced children are in desperate need of a safe and protective environment and increased support and funding from the international community.”

Many children are living in makeshift shelters, including schools with unhygienic conditions, placing them at risk of disease. School closures are also leading to a higher dropout rate.

Unicef said that children in Haiti are being forced to join violent gangs to survive as they often lack access to food, healthcare, clean water and sanitation.

Displaced children and teenagers in Haiti also face a higher risk of sexual assault, exploitation, abuse and family separation, according to the UN agency.

The announcement comes days after hundreds of Kenyan police officers arrived in Haiti to spearhead a US-sponsored force aimed at loosening armed gangs’ grip on the country.

The deployment has been widely condemned in Haiti after a UN peacekeeping mission in the 1990s introduced cholera to the country and was tainted by sexual abuse allegations.