Haiti: Criminal Violence, Hunger Trapping Children

• Hundreds, if not thousands, of children in Haiti, driven by hunger and poverty, have in recent months joined criminal groups, where they are forced into illegal activities and face abuse.
• Criminal groups have increased recruitment of children as a response to the law enforcement operations of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission and the Haitian National Police.
• The transitional government should provide protection, access to essential goods and services including education and legal opportunities for children’s rehabilitation and reintegration.

(Washington, DC, October 9, 2024) – Hundreds, if not thousands, of children in Haiti, driven by hunger and poverty, have joined criminal groups, where they are forced into illegal activities and face abuse, Human Rights Watch said today.

Criminal groups have increased recruitment of children as a response to the law enforcement operations of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission and the Haitian National Police, according to local and international humanitarian and human rights organizations.

“With limited options for survival, many children in Haiti are drawn into criminal groups, where they become involved in illegal activities and face serious risks,” said Nathalye Cotrino, crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch. “To stem the violence, the transitional government should focus on improving children’s lives by providing protection, access to essential goods and services including education and legal opportunities for their rehabilitation and reintegration.”

During a visit to Port-au-Prince in July 2024, Human Rights Watch interviewed 58 people, including children associated with criminal groups; human rights and humanitarian workers; diplomats; and representatives of Haitian civil society and United Nations agencies. Researchers also met with transitional government officials, including the prime minister, justice and foreign affairs ministers, the transitional presidential council president, the police director, and the multinational security support mission commander. Human Rights Watch interviewed an additional 20 people remotely, and reviewed data and reports from the UN, civil society, and local organizations.

Criminal groups control nearly 80 percent of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and its metropolitan area, and are expanding into other areas. About 2.7 million people, including half a million children, live under their control, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). While no official figures are available, human rights and humanitarian organizations and government officials estimate that at least 30 percent of criminal group members are children, and Haitian government officials have estimated that several thousand criminal group members are operating in the country. Children participate in criminal activities ranging from extortion and looting to severe acts of violence, including killing and kidnapping.

Children associated with criminal groups told Human Rights Watch that hunger is the main factor that either compels them to join these groups or leads their families to allow it. The groups are often their only sources of food, shelter, and income.

A 16-year-old from Port-au-Prince said he joined the Village de Dieu group when he was 14. “Before [joining], I lived with my mother … It was really hard to get food and clothes,” he said. “[A]t home, there wasn’t any food. But when I was with [the group], I could eat.”

Girls who are forced to join criminal groups are particularly at risk of sexual violence. “Gabriel, the gang leader of Brooklyn [in Cité Soleil], asks his henchmen to bring him a virgin girl every month. With the boss doing this, there’s no way to stop others who do the same,” a humanitarian worker said. Referring to the girls in the Tibwa Gang, a 16-year-old boy and member of the group said: “They rape them, not only the boss, everyone, whoever wants to, can rape them. They are in the group to serve them with sex and cooking and washing clothes.”

Children in the groups are abused if they refuse to participate in criminal activities, usually with beatings and death threats. “Once, they told me to blindfold someone we were going to kidnap,” a 14-year-old member of the Tibwa Gang said. “When I refused to do it, they hit me in the head with a baseball bat and said if I didn’t, they would kill me.”

These children also face violence from the police and rival groups as well as so-called self-defense groups. The UN Integrated Office in Haiti documented cases of summary executions and lynchings of children between January and June.

All children Human Rights Watch interviewed said they wanted to leave the criminal groups. “I want to leave the street and not be in criminal groups anymore,” a 17-year-old Carrefour resident said. “I want to continue at school and go back to my family.” But families and neighbors often reject and stigmatize children who return, human rights officials said.

The first components of the UN-authorized MSS mission led by Kenya arrived in late June to support the Haitian National Police in restoring security. Humanitarian workers and children associated with criminal groups told Human Rights Watch they hoped the government’s security plan would address the specific needs of children through a protection-centered approach.

UN agencies, local organizations, and government entities such as the Institute for Social Welfare and Research have begun some initiativesto support children formerly associated with criminal groups. Yet the government lacks a comprehensive strategy and needs more resources to ensure that all children receive protection, including through access to education, legal pathways out of the groups, and access to justice. The transitional government is committed to addressing this challenge, the prime minister and other government officials said, but more international support is urgently needed.

With the school year under way, the transitional government should prioritize an education-focused strategy that protects children, ensures that security measures do not violate their rights, addresses their urgent needs, provides them a legal exit from criminal groups, and holds those responsible for abuse accountable. Funding support from the international community is essential.

“In its security response, the transitional government should prioritize protecting children associated with criminal groups by implementing specific disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programs, as well as a broader approach, with increased financial support, to ensure their access to education and other essential services,” Cotrino said. “Addressing children’s urgent needs within a protective environment like schools can help provide psychosocial support, foster social inclusion, and prevent recruitment.”

For more details, accounts from victims, and recommendations, please see below.

Impact of Criminal Violence on Children

The UN Secretary-General said in the 2024 annual report on children in armed conflict that he was concerned “by indiscriminate armed gang violence and grave violations against children” and called for a political solution, emphasizing “the importance of including child protection provisions” and “appropriate training in child protection” for the MSS mission’s personnel. The previous year’s report notedserious violations, including child recruitment, killing, sexual violence, and attacks on schools. Including Haiti in the report reflects the severity of apparent violations of international norms though it is not a legal conclusion that there is an armed conflict in the country.

The UN office in Haiti said that 105 children, 78 boys and 27 girls, were killed from January to mid-September 2024. More than 300,000 children are internally displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

International and local organizations have raised the alarm about criminal groups increasingly recruiting and using children, referencing allegations that the groups are responding to the joint operations by the MSS mission and the police that began in mid-July. “The Village de Dieu group has a specialized unit dedicated to training children daily to prepare them for the arrival of the MSS,” a local human rights official said. “They teach them how to set up barriers in neighborhoods, establish checkpoints, handle weapons, and position them at lookout points around the neighborhood.”

Human rights and humanitarian workers said they are seeing more children in the ranks and on the front lines of clashes between criminal groups and the police and the “self-defense” groups. “Criminal groups are recruiting them more and more, using social media like TikTok and Facebook to attract them,” a humanitarian official said.

More injured children are arriving at health centers and churches, many with gunshot wounds, and bodies of children killed are increasingly found in the streets, according to international and local organizations. “More children have begun coming to our church with gunshot wounds,” a priest in Port-au-Prince said. “They are afraid that if they go to hospitals, they could be reported to the police, which could lead to retaliation from vigilante groups. It is devastating to see them so abandoned and unprotected.”

Humanitarian Situation

Children in Haiti are in urgent need of assistance. Approximately 125,000 children face severe acute malnutrition, while nearly 3 million children – half of Haiti’s children – need humanitarian aid.

Haiti’s health system is on the brink of collapse. Only 24 percent of Port-au-Prince health facilities function at normal capacity. Children and their families lack access to basic social services, sanitation facilities, and psychological support.

Nearly 1,000 schools in Haiti’s Western department, where the capital is located, and neighboring Artibonite were closed for much of the last school year due to looting or violent attacks, depriving an estimated 160,000 children of education and school meals. Internally displaced people have occupied many Port-au-Prince schools, with no plan in place or resources allocated to reactivate them or relocate the displaced populations, a senior UN official said.

Criminal Groups’ Recruitment and Use of Children

Human Rights Watch interviewed 16 children, 12 boys and 4 girls, who live in communities controlled by criminal groups, including 6 who have recently been involved in criminal groups, as well as humanitarian and human rights workers from organizations assisting these children in four communes of the Western Department: Port-au-Prince, Carrefour, Gressier, and Cité Soleil. The interviewees live in areas controlled primarily by Tibwa Gang, Village de Dieu, Gran Ravine, Gang of Brooklyn, and Gang of Belekou. All requested that their names and identifying details not be published for security reasons.

Human Rights Watch identified children associated with criminal groups with the support of Haitian and international organizations. All participants were informed about the interview’s purpose, its voluntary nature, and how the information would be used. Interviews were conducted in safe locations, taking measures to avoid retraumatization. The children and their caregivers provided oral consent.

Hunger is Forcing Children to Join Criminal Groups

All children Human Rights Watch spoke to said severe hunger was the primary reason they joined criminal groups. Most described living in extreme hardship, on the streets or in public squares, and struggling daily to meet their needs. Some still lived with their families, but their parents could not provide for them. They said the state was absent, there were no police in their neighborhoods, and they had no legal economic or social opportunities to earn a living, buy food, or access basic necessities. In the areas where the children live, criminal groups are the de facto authorities, providing “employment” and essential goods.

Mathis F., a 14-year-old orphan, lives on the street and looks after his 13-year-old brother. He said: “I joined the gang because I had nothing. I never went to school … I was out on the street, starving, with nowhere to sleep, no clothes, nothing.… The day I joined, they gave me 1,150 gourdes [US$9] and food. They took me to a house where a bunch of [gang members] lived … I was the only kid there. Two days later, five more kids came. [The gang] offered me work.”

Several children said they also received shelter in occupied houses. The payment for their activities is their only means of support to meet basic needs and to contribute to their families’ meager resources.

Criminal groups also use hunger to pressure children to stay in their ranks. “When I decided to leave … they said, ‘You don’t have food at home, so if you leave us, you’ll die of hunger,’” a 16-year-old from Port-au-Prince said. “That’s how [they] tried to force me to stay.”

Children’s Roles Within Criminal Groups

Criminal groups have a hierarchical structure, and children, mainly boys, start at the base and report to direct leaders, who assign them small tasks to test their loyalty. They receive payments between 100 and 20,000 gourdes [under $1 to $150] per month, as well as food and shelter if they need it.

Children and human rights workers interviewed said criminal groups have recruited children around age 10, with some even younger. The UN Panel of Experts on Haiti reported in late March that “the gangs of Grand Ravine, led by Ti Lapli, and 5 Segond, led by Izo, have been identified as the most active in the forceful recruitment of children.”

While boys and girls both receive payment and are trained in handling weapons, loading cartridges, and managing communication devices, among other things, the tasks they are assigned are largely based on gender.

“They give me 2,000 gourdes [$15] … more or less, depending on the time I spend doing the tasks or the type of task they give me,” Quentin M. said. In some groups, after three to five months and following training in weapons and ammunition, children are deployed in clashes with the police, or rival or “self-defense” groups, mostly in charge of reloading magazines and carrying weapons.

Boys are used as informants (“antennas”) to provide information on police patrols or facilitate robberies, running errands such as purchasing food or clothing for leaders, and in some cases, carrying and transporting weapons and ammunition and participating in looting, extortion, and kidnapping.

Michel T., 14, left the Gran Ravine group a year ago after witnessing group members kill people from his neighborhood. “I [joined] when I was 8, because I didn’t have parents and lived on the street,” he said. “I usually ran errands or participated in roadblocks. There were four other kids in the group, 13 or 11 years old.” Since leaving the group, he has resumed living on the streets and begs to survive.

Some boys interviewed said they had been given weapons within weeks of joining a group, including .38 caliber pistols and a Kalashnikov rifle. “They gave me a Kalashnikov with a bunch of bullets,” Michel T. said. “The day they gave it to me, they loaded all the bullets in the magazine and told me to carry it on my back.”

More organized criminal groups, such as Village de Dieu, have rigorous training programs for children, particularly boys, and incentives to ensure their loyalty and prevent them from defecting to rival groups, the UN office said. These groups are involved in larger-scale illegal activities including arms, human and drug trafficking, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.

Girls are generally exploited for labor and assigned cooking and cleaning duties in the houses where the leaders and members of criminal groups live. During the daytime, girls are also tasked with doing errands and transporting weapons and ammunition.

“I often ran errands or cooked for the group,” said Marie H., a pregnant 16-year-old girl and a former member of the Grand Ravine group. “There were lots of people in the group, including many girls aged 15-17. When I joined the group, it was easier to eat. During the clashes, I saw people wounded and many dead; I was almost hit by a bullet.”

Group members and leaders also sexually exploit girls, children associated with groups and humanitarian workers said. “The leaders force them to perform sexual acts with them or their members while others watch,” a humanitarian worker said. “They tell them that they are their girlfriends and that they must obey them, but in reality, they exploit them for their pleasure and consumption.”

Group members also abduct girls from their homes, to recruit them into the groups, taking them to criminal leaders’ homes, where they are raped and forced to work. “I took care of a 14-year-old girl who was kidnapped by a gang for 15 days and gang raped every day,” a humanitarian worker said. “Soon after, she found out she was pregnant. She didn’t want to have the baby but the gang she belonged forced her to have it. Now they say the baby is a son of Village de Dieu.”

Families living in areas controlled by criminal groups are often threatened into handing over one of their daughters to the group in exchange for protection. “More and more families are being forced to hand over their daughters to the gangs,” a local human rights worker said. “They know they will be raped and treated like slaves, but they have to accept it, and in some cases they do it to avoid their daughters being raped or abused by men from other groups or from their own community.”

Quentin M. said that all the money he earns “by running errands, washing cars, buying groceries, and transporting weapons for the group goes to [his] mother and two younger sisters, aged 2 years and 10 months.” He said he does this to prevent them from suffering the same fate [being sexually abused] as the girls in his group.

Girls are not usually offered incentives for loyalty. Instead, they are usually let go after some time, typically when they become pregnant as a result of rape, local human rights workers said.

National and International Response

In January 2024, the UN and Haitian government entities signed a protocol on the “transfer, reception and care of children associated with armed gangs encountered during territorial security operations.” While some steps have been taken toward its implementation, to be led primarily by the Haiti Institute of Social Welfare and Research and UNICEF, the institute still lacks the necessary personnel and funding to fulfill its mandate, its director said.