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.”

Haiti has been rocked by escalating violence since February when gangs launched attacks on prisons and other state institutions across the capital, Port-au-Prince. The unrest spread to other parts of the Caribbean nation and has displaced more than 700,000 people, according to the United Nations.

According to testimonies gathered by HRW, girls are raped and forced to cook and clean for gang members and often abandoned once they become pregnant.

“Gabriel, the gang leader of Brooklyn [in Cite 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 revealed to the New York-based group.

‘State absent’

According to HRW, “severe hunger” was the main reason for the children joining the criminal groups.

“They said the state was absent, there were no police in their neighbourhoods, and they had no legal economic or social opportunities to earn a living, buy food, or access basic necessities,” the report said.

Haiti’s gangs have been expanding their influence in recent years while state institutions have been paralysed by a lack of funds and political crises. Gangs now control territory where 2.7 million people live, including half a million children.

About a third of gang members are children, according to UN estimates. The criminal groups control nearly 80 percent of Port-au-Prince and are expanding into other areas, according to HRW.

The report said gangs are increasingly using popular social media apps to attract recruits. The leader of the Village de Dieu gang is a rapper and publishes music videos of his soldiers. HRW said he has a specialised unit to train children on handling weapons and setting up checkpoints.

The rights group said it interviewed 58 people, including children associated with criminal groups, humanitarian workers, diplomats and representatives of Haitian civil society and UN agencies in Port-au-Prince in July, and an additional 20 remotely.

The UN approved Haiti’s request for a multinational police mission to help the country’s police fight the gangs a year ago, but it has so far only been partially deployed.

HRW outlined several measures for both the government and the international community to address the deep instability including providing more resources for security forces, ensuring children are able to eat and go to school and providing rehabilitation for recruits.