Honduras has been shaken up with increasing number of crimes and violence involving children and adolescents. That's why U.S. humanitarian group Casa Alianza has urged the government on Sunday to stop the killings among the youth, who are the common victims of crime in the Central American nation.

Almost 33 percent of the Honduran territory is under the control of international drug traffickers and organizes crime groups such as Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 gangs. And this 2016, at least 22 people have died during massacres in Honduras, the Violence Observatory at the National Autonomous University noted.

"These killings sent a message to the State to desist from making presence in the territories which for years have been dominated by criminals," Observatory coordinator Migdonia Ayestas said.

Due to the appalling numbers of violent crimes recorded, Casa Alianza denounced the existence of "death squads" in Honduras. According to Latin Correspondent, almost a hundred children and adolescents are killed per month.

As a matter of fact, a group of heavily armed gang members recently shot three girls and two boys, aged 13 and 16, at close range at the Hato de Enmedio neighborhood, east of Tegucigalpa, Honduras' capital city.

The incident took place on Friday, Feb 12, and the victims were all members of one family. The youngsters were in the neighborhood to collect trash for recycling, which was their source of living, La Prensa reported.

"This new massacre occurred in a hostile environment for children and young people, records of violence show that at least 81 children and young people are killed every month in the country and more than 98 percent of crimes remain in total impunity." Casa Alianza stated.

Aside from the latest crime, the same neighborhood also saw the deaths of at least three more youths, who were reportedly killed on Jan. 15 during a shootout. The bodies of the victims were abandoned at the back of an alley.

Casa Alianza also called for an in-depth investigation regarding the nation's "extermination squads that systematically carry out a strategy of social cleansing in order to create fear among the population."

In addition, the organization also slammed Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez and his government for failing to meet its proposed policy to eradicate the rising violence in the country. They even claimed that the government has been falsifying statistics to give a deceptive scenario about the violent events in Honduras.

"It is clear that the security strategy put in place by the current government has failed to protect the population and it is expensive, inefficient and ineffective because it costs the lives of thousands of Hondurans," the organization said. "The current government makes up the numbers in relation to the violent events in an effort to give a misleading picture of what actually happens."

Honduras recently had the world's highest homicide rate for four consecutive years. Based on a USA Today report, 92 homicides per 100,000 people were recorded in 2011. And while the nation's murder rate had dropped to 61 homicides per 100,000 in 2015, the threat of gang violence is still lingering in Honduras.