Skip to main content
The Morning Star 2026 Conference
Gangs in Haiti are increasingly recruiting more children, human rights group warns
People raise their arms while walking past a police station in Pont-Sonde, Haiti, October 7, 2024, days after a gang attacked the town

GANGS in Haiti are increasingly recruiting more children into their ranks, a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned today.

The group said that it had spoken to six children recently involved with gangs, all of whom said they wanted to leave and had only joined because they were hungry and gangs were often the only source of food, shelter or money.

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

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Passengers ride in a shared taxi as it makes its way through Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 25, 2026
Haiti / 31 March 2026
31 March 2026
People repair a roof in a makeshift a shelter for families displaced by gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, May 5, 2025
Caribbean / 13 May 2025
13 May 2025

While Trump threatens to send Haitian gang leaders to El Salvador's terror prison, DANNY SHAW reveals how these paramilitary groups are merely symptoms of US-backed neocolonial rule — the real terrorists are the CIA and international actors arming desperate youth to traumatise an unarmed population