EA week-long search ends happily: after 40 days, four children missing after a plane crash in the Colombian jungle have been found alive. “A joy for the whole country!” Colombian President Gustavo Petro wrote on Twitter on Friday. “The four children who were lost in the Colombian jungle 40 days ago have been found alive.” He also published a photo of soldiers and indigenous people , who helped search for the indigenous children aged 11 months, 4, 9 and 13 years.
On May 1st, a Cessna 206 light aircraft crashed in the Amazon rainforest in southern Colombia. On May 15 and 16, the bodies of the three adults on board were found near the wreck. They were the pilot, an indigenous leader and the mother of the three missing children, Magdalena Mucutui Valencia.
A major search operation involving 160 soldiers and 70 indigenous people was launched in hopes of rescuing 13-year-old Lesly, nine-year-old Soleiny, four-year-old Tien Noriel and 11-month-old Cristin.
The children belong to the indigenous people of the Huitoto or Witoto. Huitoto children are familiar with the jungle, the missing siblings’ grandfather, Fidencio Valencia, told AFP. They learn early on to hunt, fish and gather edible plants. However, snakes, jaguars, cougars and other predators also live in the area of the crash. There are also armed drug gangs active there.
The army used sniffer dogs, helicopters and satellite images for the search operation. In addition, 10,000 leaflets were dropped over the area calling on the children in Spanish and their indigenous language to stay where they are. A message was broadcast over loudspeakers in the jungle, in which the children’s grandmother called on them not to move further from the crash site so that the soldiers could find them.
