Armed bandits are exploiting the record number of people crossing the Darién Gap – a 100km stretch of jungle connecting Colombia and Panama – to kidnap and rape desperate migrants, according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
The organisation said it treated 397 survivors of sexual violence this year – many of them children – once they safely reached Panama. There have been reports of “group rapes in tents set up for that purpose in the mountainous rainforest and swampland”.
The number far exceeds the 172 recorded in 2022, and the charity says it is the latest example of how the suffering of migrants in the Darién is becoming normalised. MSF is urging the Panama and Colombian authorities to deploy an effective security presence in the jungle to protect migrants.
Among the harrowing testimonies given to MSF, migrants described being taken to tents and raped by groups of armed men in front of other migrants.
“I saw many people raped. I saw them left naked and beaten,” one Venezuelan woman told MSF. “One, two or three of them grab you and rape you, and then the next one comes and rapes you again, and if you scream, they beat you.”
In some cases, people who tried to defend the victims were beaten or killed, including a young boy who was shot in the head.
The number of similar accounts has spiked in recent months with MSF treating 107 sexual violence cases in October alone. Three of the recent rape survivors were aged 11, 12 and 16.
“Not all people who experience sexual violence receive timely attention, due to the stigma against victims surrounding this form of violence, threats from perpetrators, forms of sexual violence not recognised as such, and the fact that people do not feel safe asking for help,” said Carmenza Gálvez, the MSF medical coordinator.
“In addition, there is the fear that reporting the crimes against them may delay their journey north.”
The hostility of the Darién’s swampy jungles have historically kept people away. With few roads and little state presence, armed drug-trafficking gangs are the de facto authority in the area.
At least 36 people died in the mountainous forests last year, many having fallen victim to the jungle’s sleep cliffs and raging rivers.
However, it remains the only land-based pathway connecting South America to Central America, and an estimated 460,000 people, including 100,000 children, have crossed the Darién so far this year – more than triple the 133,000 who made the journey in 2021. Most of them are on their way to the US or other northern destinations.
MSF is urging local governments to increase their presence in the abandoned jungles to safeguard human rights and do more to support victims.
Bram Ebus, a consultant at the International Crisis Group thinktank, said most of the violence occurs in the more lawless Panamanian side of the Darién. The Colombian side is strictly policed by the country’s largest drug cartel, the Gulf Clan, which deals out violent retribution to rapists to prevent human rights issues from denting their people-smuggling profits.
“Improved cooperation between Colombia and Panama to control migrant flows, coupled with increased state presence and improved access for humanitarian aid organisations, has the potential to significantly enhance the security of migrants in the Darién,” Ebus said.