‘They said I had to kill him’: the Haiti gangs forcing children into a life of brutality

When Davensky was eight years old, he was kidnapped from school. An armed gang pulled a black bag over his head, dragged him from class and threw him into a truck. He was taken to an unknown location, stripped and locked inside a refrigerated room. Some time later, his captors handed him a gun.

“They pointed to another child and said I had to kill him. It was a test. They said if I didn’t pull the trigger, they would cut off my fingers,” he says, speaking in quick bursts. “I did it.”

For the next two years, Davensky, a Haitian orphan whose name has been changed to protect his identity, was forced to work for the gang. He was sent to rob people at gunpoint and took part in kidnappings. He was forced to kill a baby once, he says. “I didn’t have a choice.”

Davensky, now 14, is one of a growing number of Haitian children drawn into the country’s conflict, when armed gangs captured large swathes of territory after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021.

The UN warned this year of an “alarming increase” in the number of children being recruited by armed gangs in Haiti, estimating that they now make up half of all members.

“The gangs publish pictures and footage on social media when they are going into combat, and there are more and more children,” says Diego Da Rin, Haiti analyst at the International Crisis Group.

As gangs expand into rural areas, they are turning to children to replace slain fighters. “Thousands have been killed in operations, so they [children] are filling that vacuum,” says Da Rin.

For some children, recruitment begins with coercion; in other cases, gangs exploit chronic hunger and displacement. Many are given a simple choice: obey or die.

“Some children have lost their parents in massacres. Others have been displaced or forced out of school,” says Ulrick Tintin, legal director at Défenseurs Plus, a Haitian human rights organisation. “The groups take advantage.”

Amid the violence, thousands of schools have closed and entire communities uprooted. According to the UN human rights agency, UNHCHR, several gangs have established welfare systems to care for children living on the streets or those whose families cannot provide for them. They offer meals, clothing and shelter in abandoned buildings.

Pierre Espérance, director of Haiti’s National Human Rights Defence Network, says: “The state doesn’t exist any more and, in the poor areas, the children don’t have other alternatives. They need to be involved in the gangs to survive.”

After his forced recruitment, Davensky was locked in an abandoned house with other children and let out only for assignments. Four times a day, older gang members brought fried chicken to the house, and every three months, Davensky received about $50 (£37).

“Children are offered meals, weekly payments and given jobs as lookouts,” says Da Rin. “From there, their involvement slowly grows until some of them receive a weapon.”

Alongside working as lookouts, the children are often also used to monitor police movements, carry messages and gather intelligence. Over time, they are given more dangerous responsibilities: guarding kidnap victims, collecting extortion payments, carrying weapons and participating in attacks.

Payments can range from $100-$300 for more routine tasks such as guarding kidnap victims and ransacking homes, according to the UNHCHR. Taking part in kidnappings and armed assaults, or hijacking vehicles, can bring significantly more, reaching up to $700.

Young people are enticed to move up the ranks, not only for higher payments but for the power that these positions confer within the group and in their communities. Others remain in the gangs against their will, often without pay.

Sara was eight when her father, her only surviving parent, died. She was sent to live with relatives, where she was abused and denied food as punishment. At 12, she was thrown out of the house and for years survived on the streets, washing cars and selling water. Then, aged about 14, gang members approached her.

“They said I had to obey,” Sara recalled. “I went through a lot of misery to survive.”

Sara was mostly made to run errands – buying alcohol and cigarettes, and carrying messages. But she says she was also raped.

The UN says girls as young as 12 are subjected to sexual enslavement and exploitation by gang members in Haiti. In gang-controlled neighbourhoods, some girls are forced into arrangements known as ti menaj – “little sweethearts” – in which they are assigned to individual gang members.

In desperate circumstances, some families encourage the relationships in the hope that a daughter will be protected from rape.

Refusing a gang can also be fatal. “They said I was just a street child. They said if I did not do what they wanted, they would kill me,” Sara says.

One day, she says, her closest friend refused to run an errand. Sara watched as gang members raped the 16-year-old, beat and killed her. Afterwards, they set her body on fire.

At the compound where Davensky was held, disobedience was punished with torture; if the children refused to follow orders, they would be stripped and forced to lie naked on rooftops, told that if they moved they would be shot.

The growing use of child soldiers also presents a formidable challenge for the new international mission, the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF), which is now being deployed to restore security in Haiti. The force is expected to number 5,500 police and military officers from countries including the US, El Salvador and Chad by the autumn.

As military pressure on the gangs intensifies, analysts fear they will increasingly rely on children as fighters.

“They already put children on the frontlines,” says Da Rin. “That will be extremely problematic for the Haitian security forces and the foreign forces.”

Gang leaders understand the dilemma, he adds. “The gangs are completely cognisant of the moral conundrum that implies. They are absolutely ready to use children as a deterrent against iron-fist operations,” says Da Rin.

But any long-term solution to the crisis will require more than military strength, humanitarian agencies say. Even if security forces succeed in reclaiming territory, thousands of children who have spent years inside armed groups will require lengthy rehabilitation.

“The magnitude of the problem lies in the fact that it has been going on for five or six years. Children have been born in that time, and for many this is the only context they know,” says Marta Hurtado, a UNHCHR spokesperson.

“How do you repair a society where the social contract has been torn apart?” says William O’Neill, the UN’s human rights expert on Haiti. “And what do you do with those gang members, half of whom are minors?”

Last year, the Haitian government and Unicef launched the Prejeunes programme to rehabilitate children recruited by armed groups. Sara and Davensky are now under protection in one of its transit centres, where they attend school.

But both say they struggle to imagine a future beyond survival. “I went through hell,” Sara says. “If my mother and father were alive, I would not be in this situation.

“I dream that one day someone will come and take care of me. But now I am exhausted. I feel like I cannot go on.”