Four indigenous children have managed to survive a plane crash and more than a month in the Amazon jungle, Colombian President Gustavo Petro tweeted on Friday.
"A joy for the whole country! The 4 children who were lost 40 days ago in the Colombian jungle were found alive," Petro wrote, posting a photo of military personnel and indigenous people, involved in the massive rescue operation for the siblings.
The four have been identified as 13-year-old Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy, Soleiny Jacobombaire Mucutuy aged 9, Tien Ranoque Mucutuy, 4, and infant Cristin Ranoque Mucutuy.
Separately, the Colombian president told reporters that the children “learning from indigenous families and their learning of living in the jungle has saved them.”
He added that the children were all together when they were found, and that they had showed an example of “total survival that will be remembered in history.”
“They are children of the jungle and now they are children of Colombia,” Petro emphasized.
He spoke after local media outlets reported that the kids, who are from the Uitoto indigenous group, had been dehydrated and had insect bites, but were otherwise in good condition, when they had been found.
In this photo released by Colombia's Armed Forces Press Office, soldiers and Indigenous men tend to the four Indigenous brothers who were missing after a deadly plane crash, in the Solano jungle, Caqueta state, Colombia, Friday, June 9, 2023
© Photo : Colombia's Armed Forces Press Office
The four were on board a single-engined Cessna 206 plane with their mother, a pilot and a co-pilot when it crashed on May 1, which is believed to have happened due a mechanical failure.
There were no signs of the youngsters when the aircraft's wreckage was recovered by the Colombian military who also found the bodies of the three adults in the forest in a rural area of the municipality of Solano, Caqueta, in southeastern Colombia, in mid-May. This prompted a huge military-led search operation involving more than a hundred Colombian special forces troops and over 70 indigenous scouts.