By Frank Kamuntu
The four children from an indigenous community were rescued on Friday, June 9, by the military in a jungle near the border between Colombia’s Caqueta and Guaviare provinces, close to where the small plane had crashed.
The four kids, three girls and one boy, aged 13, 9 and 4, and a now 12-month-old baby, arrived in the capital Bogota early on Saturday for medical treatment.
This was more than five weeks after the plane – a Cessna 206 – they were travelling in crashed in the thick jungle, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro said.
“A joy for the whole country! The four children who were lost … in the Colombian jungle appeared alive,” Petro said in a message on Twitter.
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¡Una alegría para todo el país! Aparecieron con vida los 4 niños que estaban perdidos hace 40 días en la selva colombiana. pic.twitter.com/cvADdLbCpm — Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) June 9, 2023
The plane, according to reports, was carrying seven people on a route between Araracuara, in Amazonas province, and San Jose del Guaviare, a city in Guaviare province, when it issued a Mayday alert due to engine failure in early May 1. Three adults, including a pilot and the children’s mother, died. Their bodies were found inside the plane.
“They were together; they are weak. Let’s let the doctors assess them. They found them, and it makes me very happy,” Petro told reporters on Friday.
He said the children had defended themselves alone in the middle of the jungle.
It is reported that rescuers, supported by search dogs, earlier found discarded fruit the children ate to survive, as well as improvised shelters made with jungle vegetation. Colombia’s army and air force planes and helicopters participated in the rescue operation dubbed Operation Hope which rescued the children. The search operation was conducted in an area where visibility is greatly limited by mist and thick foliage.
“We did everything necessary to make the impossible possible, using satellites, using aircraft that launched messages, that launched food, that launched flyers, that launched hope,” said General Pedro Sanchez, commander of the military’s joint command for special operations.
During the search, reports indicate, soldiers on helicopters dropped boxes of food into the jungle, hoping that it would help sustain the children if they found the supplies.
Planes flying over the jungle also fired flares to help search crews on the ground at night.
Colombian soldiers attend to four children found in the jungle on June 9, 2023, after they survived a plane crash on May 1.
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