Acandí

Acandí is a town in Colombia at the northern extremity of the department of Chocó in the northwest of Colombia, bordering Panama and the Caribbean Sea. It is 366 km (227 mi) from the department's capital, Quibdó. Its average temperature is 28 degrees Celsius (82 °F). It was founded around 1887, and it became a municipality in 1905, previously being part of Turbo. The name "Acandí" is a corruption of the indigenous word "Acanti", which means "River of Stone". It is one of the constituent territories of the region of Darién, together with the towns of Unguía, Juradó and the municipality of Riosucio west of the Atrato River. About 87% of the population are Afro-Colombians, Blacks and Mulato, and the poverty index was estimated at 51 in 2018. Acandí has no road connection with the outside world. It is only about 5 miles (8 km.) from the Panama border. There is a ferry connecting it with Necoclí, some 35 miles (56 km) east across the Gulf of Urabá, from which there is a paved road south. This is the route for everything in Acandí that does not arrive by air. In the years leading up to the Haitian migrant crisis of 2021, these ferries, running at capacity, were primarily transporting Haitians, who were about to enter the Panamanian Darién Gap en route to the United States.