Children missing in forest for 40 days found alive
The Colombian president announced Friday evening that four brothers who had been missing in the jungle had been found alive.
Members of the Colombian military pose with children who wandered the Amazon for 40 days.
AFP
“A miracle”, “a joy for the whole country!” Four children, ages 13, 9, 4 and one, survived the crash of the small plane they were traveling in after they wandered separately in the Amazon jungle in Colombia for forty days.
“Four children lost in the Colombian jungle 40 days ago have been found alive,” President Gustavo Pedro announced in a post on Twitter, along with a photo of soldiers and tribesmen searching for the siblings.
“Yes, the children have been found, but I need a plane or a helicopter to take them urgently,” the children’s grandfather, Fidencio Valencia, told AFP. “They were found by Henry Guerrero from Araraguara, who had been looking for them from the beginning,” the grandfather said, while several relatives of the little ones appeared in national media in tears.
The children, originally from the Uitoto tribal group, had been wandering alone in the jungle since the May 1 crash of the Cessna 206 in which they were traveling with their mother, pilot and cousin. All three adults died and their bodies were recovered by the army at the crash site. According to the military, rescuers found the children about 5 km west of the crash site. “They are weak. Let the doctors make their prognosis,” said Mr. Pedro told reporters.
Photographs released by the army show children sitting on tarpaulins surrounded by soldiers offering food and drinks amid thick vegetation. They are in jeans and the two older ones are in dirty long-sleeved T-shirts, their legs covered in bandages. Two others were wrapped in survival blankets.
Thin faces
The youngest, Christine, is in the arms of one of her rescuers. According to the Colombian press, he became one while roaming the jungle with his siblings. All four faces are intense and look very thin.
More than 100 soldiers, along with sniffer dogs and dozens of natives, have been searching for the children between the departments of Guaviere and Caqueta since the plane was discovered, upright, nose planted on the ground, amid thick vegetation. And according to the army, the rescuers traveled a total distance of nearly 2656 km in this impenetrable jungle, over a month of research, always with “unwavering hope”.
In this highly hostile environment where jaguars, cougars, snakes and other predators roam, the children’s chances of survival seemed to diminish day by day. All kinds of insects are especially volatile, and there is also the question of vital access to drinking water. The region is an area of strong influence for the dissident FARC, an armed group that recently broke down in peace talks.
News of missing children spread around the world with videos and photographs of military searches that followed them, finding bottles, scissors, shoes, nappies, chewed fruit, footprints or makeshift shelters. .
“Today is a magical day, which, without a doubt, fills us with joy”, the Colombian president stressed upon his return from Cuba, where the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN), the last guerrilla still active in the country, reached a six-month ceasefire agreement.
The children “were alone, they succeeded on their own. This is an example of total survival that will go down in history. So these children today are the children of peace and the children of Colombia,” he said with satisfaction.
Wilson is still nowhere to be found
Gustavo Pedro praised the “effective coordination between the military and the natives” during the search, an “example of the alliance the country should follow”. “If the doctors advise to take them to Bogotá or Villavicencio (center), it depends on what they decide. I will try to talk to them in the morning,” the head of state added.
Wilson, a six-year-old Belgian shepherd dog that went missing in recent days during searches is yet to be found, however, the head of state lamented.
Defense Minister Iván Velázquez, for his part, paid tribute to the various military units, “unwavering and tireless” and to the indigenous people who participated in the research.
Army rescuers “immediately attended to and stabilized” the four siblings. They will be transferred to San Jose de Guaviare (285 km southeast of Bogota). “Tomorrow, depending on their medical evaluation and their condition, we hope they will be transferred to Bogotá, to the military hospital,” the minister added. These children, elder and younger girls, were used to living in the forest and their relatives assured them how to survive.
The Air Force joined the rescue operation called “HOPE” with three helicopters. Using a loudspeaker on a device, a recorded message was broadcast by the children’s grandmother. Satellite technology was also used to trace the path the children might have taken into the forest.
AFP
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