“Joy for the whole country! Four children who disappeared in the Colombian jungle 40 days ago have been found alive,” Petro wrote on Twitter. His tweet was accompanied by a photo of several adults tending to the found children. “They are poor. Let’s let the doctors assess their condition,” Petro told reporters in Bogota.
The children, aged 13 years, nine years, four years and 11 months, are members of the Uitoto ethnic group. Since the crash of the Cessna 206 light aircraft, they had been wandering through the jungle in the Kaket department in the south of the country.
The Colombian army found the bodies of the plane’s pilot and two adult passengers in mid-May. The deceased passenger Ranoke Mukutuja was the mother of these four children.
160 soldiers and 70 Indians who know the jungle well were involved in the search for the missing children.
Petro had announced on May 17 that these children had been found alive, but retracted the announcement a day later because he had been given false information.
The children’s grandfather, Fidencio Valencia, confirmed on Friday that the children have now been found. He said that Uitoto children learn to hunt, fish and gather natural resources, so the missing children knew the rainforest well.
The plane had flown from somewhere in the rainforest to the city of San Jose del Guaviare, one of the main cities in the Amazon rainforest in Colombia.
“Operation Hope”, as the search was called, was hampered by giant trees, wild animals and heavy rain.
The authorities have not specified the cause of the disaster. The pilot reported engine problems minutes before the plane disappeared from radar screens.
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2023-06-10 05:28:21
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