Haiti’s gangs are recruiting child soldiers, rights group says

Boys and girls driven by hunger into gangs face abuse and forced into criminal activities, Human Rights Watch warns.

Haiti’s powerful armed groups are increasingly recruiting children into their ranks amid a growing humanitarian crisis, a global human rights watchdog has warned, with girls sexually abused and forced into domestic work.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of children “driven by hunger and poverty” have in recent months joined gangs and were forced to commit criminal acts ranging from extortion and looting to killing and kidnapping, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report published on Wednesday.

Boys are often used as informants, trained to use weapons and ammunition, and deployed in clashes against the police, the report said.

One of the boys interviewed, 14-year-old Michel, said he had joined a gang when he was eight. “I didn’t have parents and lived on the street,” he told HRW.

“I usually ran errands or participated in roadblocks. There were four other kids in the group, 13 or 11 years old.”