The four children who survived 40 days in the Amazon rainforest have been reunited with their families.
– It is a miracle that they are alive, says the children’s father Manuel Ranoque after he meets them.
Early in the morning of May 1, a plane crashed in the Amazon rainforest in southeastern Colombia. On board the plane were the four children, aged 13, 9, 4 and 1, along with their mother, a leader from the family’s village and the pilot.
The mother and her children survived the crash, but after four days she asked her children to go into the jungle to search for their father.
The three adults on board were found dead when the plane was located two weeks after the crash.
But the four siblings had disappeared without a trace – until last Friday. Then came the happy news that the military had found the siblings alive after 40 days in the jungle.
Lived for four days
The children are being treated at a military hospital in the capital Bogotá. Under the circumstances, they are doing well, but are dehydrated and malnourished, says Minister of Defense Iván Velásquez after visiting them in the hospital. The country’s president visited them yesterday.
– My eldest daughter has told me that their mother lived for four days and before she died she told them to leave to look for me, says the father Manuel Ranoque, in an emotional meeting with the media outside the hospital.
The father participated in the search for the children. He says it’s hard to talk to them, because they’re still weak.
The children will remain in the hospital for at least two weeks. The family says that the children have now been able to eat a little. They sit up in bed and long to get up and play.
Ate fruit and flour
However, the children have told us that they ate fruit from the jungle and a sack of cassava flour and food from the emergency packages that the military distributed, says Andrés Chaparro from the military to El Colombiano.
The 13-year-old girl is now being praised for the way she took care of her younger siblings.
– It is thanks to her that the other three were able to survive, thanks to her care and her knowledge of the rainforest, says Defense Minister Iván Velásquez at a press conference.
According to the uncle Fidencio Valencia, the children must have hidden inside hollow tree trunks, to protect themselves from dangerous animals and snakes.
The children were found five kilometers from the accident site. According to the rescue leader, members of the large search effort had passed a few tens of meters away from them several times during the search.
Search dog missing
The large rescue team in the Colombian military’s so-called “Operation hope” included the search dog Wilson. But the day before the children were found, the six-year-old Belgian shepherd was reported missing in the jungle.
The search for him continues.