In a city ruled by gangs, young rape survivor raises baby she was told to abort

Helene, abducted aged 17, is among thousands of women attacked as gang violence spreads in Haiti.

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Helene was 17 years old when a gang attacked her neighbourhood in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

She strokes her baby daughter, asleep in her lap, while describing how armed men abducted her as she tried to flee, and held her for over two months.

"They raped me and beat me every single day. Several different men. I didn't even know their names, they were masked," says the young woman, whose name we have changed to protect her identity. "Some of the things they did to me are too painful to share with you."

"I fell pregnant, they kept telling me I must abort the pregnancy and I said 'no'. This baby could be the only one I ever have."