GANGS in Haiti are increasingly recruiting more children into their ranks, a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned today.

The group said that it had spoken to six children recently involved with gangs, all of whom said they wanted to leave and had only joined because they were hungry and gangs were often the only source of food, shelter or money.

Boys are often used as informants, trained to use weapons and ammunition, and deployed in clashes against the police, HRW said.