UNICEF: Child recruitment by armed gangs in Haiti triples in 2025

The recruitment of children by armed gangs in Haiti has tripled over the past year, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced Thursday, marking "Red Hand Day" with an urgent warning about the exploitation of minors in the crisis-torn Caribbean nation.

A nation consuming its children

UNICEF revealed that child recruitment surged by 200 percent in 2025 alone, building on a 70 percent increase already recorded the previous year. More than 1.4 million Haitians are now internally displaced—over half of them children. These minors are not only witnesses to violence but increasingly its instruments, forced at gunpoint to fight, spy, and serve armed groups that have reduced the capital Port-au-Prince to a patchwork of rival fiefdoms.

'Children are not perpetrators'

"Children's rights are non-negotiable," said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. "Every child must be protected. And every child recruited or used by armed groups must be released and supported so they can heal, return to learning, and rebuild their future." She emphasized that minors associated with armed factions must never be treated as offenders but as victims requiring reintegration, psychological care and protection from retaliation and stigma.

International law under fire

The recruitment of children constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law, exposing minors to injury, sexual violence, psychological trauma, arbitrary detention and complete educational collapse. UNICEF called on Haitian authorities to urgently strengthen child protection systems, ensure safe access to essential services, and expand family tracing and reunification programs. Approximately 5.5 million Haitians now require immediate life-saving assistance amid overlapping catastrophes: gang warfare, natural disasters, disease outbreaks and economic freefall.

Decade of disintegration

Haiti's descent has accelerated since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. A revolving door of interim leaders—from Claude Joseph to Ariel Henry to Garry Conille to current Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé—has failed to restore state authority. Armed groups control an estimated 80 percent of Port-au-Prince. Between April and June 2024 alone, the UN documented more than 1,379 killed or wounded and 428 kidnapped. Against this backdrop of collapse, Haiti's children are paying the highest price.