The children had been wandering alone in the Amazon jungle since the crash on May 1 of a plane in which they were traveling with their mother, the pilot and a relative.
“A joy for the whole country!” After wandering on their own for 40 days in the Amazon jungle of Colombia, the four children aged between one and 13, survivors of the crash of the small plane in which they were traveling, were found alive. Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced it on Friday, June 9, in a post on Twitter, accompanied by a photo of soldiers and indigenous people participating in the research.
Army rescuers “have immediately taken care of and stabilized” all four siblings, according to the Department of Defense. Lesly (13), Soleiny (9), Tien Noriel (4) and Cristin (1) were extracted from the jungle the same evening, airlifted and transported by helicopter in the middle of the night to the town of San Jose del Guaviare (285 km southeast of Bogota), according to images released by the ministry. The children arrived in Bogotá, according to AFP, where they must be taken care of in a military hospital.
“They are weak”
Originally from the Uitoto indigenous group, the children had been wandering alone in the jungle since the May 1 crash of the Cessna 206, aboard which they were traveling with their mother, the pilot and a relative. The bodies of the three adults, without life, were found by the army at the site of the accident. According to the army, rescuers found the siblings about 5 km west of the crash site. “They are weak. Let the doctors make their prognosis”commented to the press Gustavo Petro.
“I just want to see them, touch them”, declared very moved to AFP the grandfather, Fidencio Valencia, in Villaviciencio. It’s nature “warrior” de Lesly, the eldest of the siblings, who allowed them to survive, judged grandmother Fatima Valencia. “She usually always took care of her brothers and sisters when their mother was working. Feeding them flour, cassava bread, fruits from the bush”.
Photos released by the army show the children, in the middle of the thick vegetation, seated on tarpaulins, surrounded by soldiers and natives giving them food and drink. They are in jeans and filthy long-sleeved T-shirts for the two older ones, their feet wrapped in bandages. Two others are swaddled in survival blankets.
Tribute to the military and natives
More than 100 soldiers accompanied by sniffer dogs and dozens of natives have been looking for the children between the departments of Guaviare and Caqueta since the discovery of the plane, vertical, nose planted on the ground, in the middle of thick vegetation .
According to the army, the rescuers of this “Operation Hope” traveled in total, in more than a month of research, nearly 2,656 km in this impenetrable jungle, always “with faith intact”. The children’s chances of survival seemed to decrease day by day, in this very hostile environment where jaguars, pumas, snakes and other predators roam. Insects of all kinds are particularly voracious there, and there is also the question of vital access to drinking water. The region is also an area of strong influence for the dissident FARC, an armed group with which peace talks were recently broken off.
The Colombian president praised “effective coordination between the military and the natives” during research, “example of alliance to follow for the country”. Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez for his part paid tribute to the various units of the army, “unwavering and tiresome”as well as to the natives who participated in the research, extended over 320 km then 20 square km.