United Nations officials in Haiti are calling for the immediate end to the recruitment and use of children by armed groups as three more gangs were added to the secretary-general’s annual list of parties responsible for grave violations against children in armed conflict.

The gangs Gran Grif, Krazé Baryé and 400 Mawozo were added in the annexes of Secretary-General António Guterres’ 2025 Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict. They join the powerful Viv Ansanm coalition, which had been previously added. The additions underscore the worsening toll of Haiti’s gang warfare as children continue to be recruited, killed, maimed, kidnapped and subjected to sexual violence.

The Haitian gangs were listed alongside other violators like the Islamic State Sahel Province in Niger and Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad, widely known as Boko Haram, as the U.N. issued a warning that others could be added and subject to prosecution for making the infamous list.

“In Haiti, the number of children killed and maimed by the Haitian national police and the Special Security Task Force increased substantially,” the report, released last month, said “If the high number of violations against children were to be repeated in 2026, without meaningful improvement, the Haitian national police and the Special Security Task Force should be listed.”

In a statement on Monday, the U.N. Integrated Office in Port-au-Prince and UNICEF said the new Haiti gangs’ listings reinforce international efforts to hold accountable those who commit grave violations against children.

“The listing of parties responsible for grave violations is a critical accountability mechanism established by the Security Council. It also creates an opportunity for the development of action plans to end and prevent violations against children and support their release from armed gangs,” the two entities said.

The listed armed gangs should also “immediately end the recruitment and use of children, and all other grave violations, and stand ready to engage in efforts leading to their peaceful release,” they added.

The newly listed groups operate in Haiti’s most volatile regions. Gran Grif operates in the country’s heartland, where dozens of houses were looted and burned and during a predawn assault in March in the town of Jean-Denis in the Lower Artibonite region. The massacre left at least 70 people dead and factions of the gang were accused of carrying out the attacks. Krazé Baryé and 400 Mawozo operate along the eastern outskirts of metropolitan Port-au-Prince.

Although intensified anti-gang operations by Haitian police and a drone-operating Security Task Force had forced some gang members to abandon strongholds in parts of Port-au-Prince earlier this year, gangs continue to carry out violent attacks and kidnappings. Among those still being held in captivity: the chief of staff, James Boyard, of the minister of defense and his 6-year-old U.S. citizen daughter.

In the West region where Port-au-Prince is located, hundreds of new deaths and displacements have been registered this year due to rival gangs battling for control over the fertile Cul-de-Sac Plain and Cité Soleil, two areas of strategic and economic importance. More recently, armed attacks on the night of July 4-5 in the Kenscoff communities of Téléco, Le Refuge and Viard have displaced more than 5,800 people, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Grave violations against children

The latest report verified 2,088 grave violations against 1,661 children, including at least 383 girls. The abuses included children killed and maimed during armed confrontations and drone strikes while girls were disproportionally subjected to sexual violence, including repeated rapes.

Nearly 900 children were recruited and used by unidentified factions of the Viv Ansanm coalition, Gran Grif, Krazé Baryé, 400 Mawozo, Kokorat Sans Ras, 5 Segond, Gran Ravine and other armed gangs and so-called self-defense groups. At least one case was attributed to the Haiti National Police.

The report also blamed the killing of 339 children, and the maiming of another 281 on unidentified perpetrators including armed gangs, clashes between police and armed gangs, self-defense groups, and operations involving a Special Security Task Force using weaponized drones.

Guterres said he remains “deeply alarmed by the increase in the recruitment and use, killing and maiming and abduction of children. I reiterate my call upon all parties to immediately cease violations against children and to allow safe, timely and unimpeded humanitarian access.”

The secretary-general also expressed alarm over the use of drones, citing the growing number of child victims. The reports documented 24 children killed in drone strikes.

“I urge transitional authorities and security forces to protect children, and refrain from excessive use of force during law enforcement operations, exercising maximum restraint and using intentional lethal force only when it is strictly unavoidable in order to protect life,” the secretary-general said.

Guterres said he welcomes Haiti’s transitional authorities’ steps toward addressing the problem following the signing of a Handover Protocol in 2024. Last year, along with UNICEF, Haiti launched a program known as PREJEUNES to provide children released from armed gangs with specialized protection services, including psychosocial support, education, family tracing and reunification. In 2025, 573 children benefited from specialized protection services through the initiative.

Guterres also welcomed the appointment of child protection focal points within the Haiti National Police and called for them to be fully operational.

“I reiterate the readiness of the United Nations to cooperate with the Gang Suppression Force on child protection, including on the development of operational guidance, such as on the handover of children, detention safeguards and alternatives, and measures to minimize child casualties during operations.”

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