Doctors Without Borders said Thursday the Panamanian government has halted its humanitarian activities in the notorious Darien Gap after it criticized a sharp rise in sexual violence against migrants who pass through there.
Last week, the NGO that goes by its French initials MSF, reported an "extreme" level of brutality against migrants who undertake the dangerous trek through the jungle between Colombia and Panama on their way to the United States.
And it urged the Panamanian authorities to redouble efforts to protect the most vulnerable people "on their territory."
On Thursday, MSF said it was "forced to suspend all medical activity for the migrant population in the Darien by order of the Panamanian authorities."
It said the government cited the lack of a valid "collaboration agreement" with the health ministry to operate in Panama.
The NGO said it had been trying in vain to renew the agreement since October 2023.
AFP has reached out to the government for comment.
In just one week in February, the NGO said last week, it had treated 113 people, including nine children, who had been sexually assaulted by criminal groups operating in the lawless Darien Gap.
For the whole of January, the number was 120.
"The level of brutality is extreme," Luis Eguiluz, the group's head of mission in Panama and Colombia, said in a statement, and expressed outrage at the "impunity" with which criminal groups operate.
MSF has volunteers stationed to help migrants as they emerge from the jungle.
It says it provides medical and psychological care to about 5,000 people a month, with a focus on survivors of sexual violence.
Despite its dangers, the 165-mile (265-kilometer) Darien Gap has become a key corridor for migrants heading from South America through Central America and Mexico in hopes of reaching the United States and a chance at a better life there.
They face treacherous terrain, wild animals and violent criminal gangs that extort, kidnap and abuse them.
In 2023, a record 520,000 people crossed through the Darien, 120,000 of them children.
In 2022, 62 people died on the trek, and a provisional count for 2023 stands at 34.
Keeping count is difficult as many deaths are never reported, and jungle animals sometimes devour the bodies of those who perish along the way.
In the first two months of this year, 72,000 people are known to have crossed the Darien: mainly Venezuelans but also Haitians, Ecuadorans, Colombians and Chinese, according to official data.
Panamanian authorities, with international support, have installed care centers in populated areas of the Darien to provide basic services to migrants.
MSF said Thursday it was "extremely concerned about the consequences of the suspension on the migrant population."
The International Organization for Migration and the Red Cross have also denounced an increase in violence against migrants in the Darien.
