Four Indigenous children, including an 11-month-old infant, were discovered alive in Colombia’s thick Amazon forests following an aircraft crash more than two weeks ago, President Gustavo Petro announced Wednesday, expressing “joy for the country.”
The children were located following “arduous search efforts” by the military, according to Petro’s tweet.
Authorities had sent out more than 100 soldiers accompanied by sniffer dogs to look for the children aboard an aeroplane that crashed on May 1, killing three adults.
Rescuers suspect the children, who included a 13-year-old, a 9-year-old, and a 4-year-old, had been wandering through the jungle in the southern Caqueta region since the crash.
Earlier Wednesday, the armed forces claimed that search efforts had been stepped up after rescuers discovered a “shelter built in an improvised way with sticks and branches,” prompting them to suspect there were survivors.
Scissors and a hair tie were visible amid the trees on the forest floor in pictures published by the military forces.
A baby’s drinking bottle and a half-eaten piece of fruit had already been discovered.
Soldiers discovered the remains of the pilot and two adults who had been flying from a jungle area to San Jose del Guaviare, one of Colombia’s largest cities in the Amazon rainforest, on Monday and Tuesday.
Ranoque Mucutuy, one of the deceased passengers, was the mother of the four Huitoto ethnic children.
Tough search operations
The hunt for “Operation Hope” was hampered by giant trees that can grow to be 40 metres tall, dangerous animals, and severe rain.
Three helicopters were used to assist, one of which aired a recorded message from the children’s grandmother in Huitoto instructing them to halt going through the dense forest.
The reason of the crash has not been revealed by authorities.
According to Colombia’s disaster response agency, the pilot reported engine difficulties just minutes before the jet vanished from radars.
It is a remote location with few roads and poor river access, therefore air travel is popular.
The Huitoto, also known as the Witoto, are renowned for living in peace with the disconnected forest, as well as for their hunting, fishing, and gathering abilities, which may have helped the children survive.
Over many decades, the population has been drastically decreased due to exploitation, illness, and assimilation.
Petro, who announced the rescue, is Colombia’s first leftist president.
He took office in August of last year but has yet to implement the essential reforms in labour law, healthcare, pensions, and the judiciary that he pledged during his campaign.
(With inputs from agencies)
