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Four Indigenous children were found alive on Friday after spending more than a month lost in a Colombian forest following a small plane crash that triggered a massive rescue operation. Photo: Colombia’s Armed Force Press Office via AP

4 children lost for weeks in Colombian jungle after plane crash found alive

  • The siblings were rescued by the military near the border between Colombia’s Caqueta and Guaviare provinces, close to where the small plane had crashed on May 1
  • Three adults, including the pilot, died in the crash and their bodies were found inside the aircraft

Four children from an Indigenous community in Colombia were found alive in the country’s south on Friday more than five weeks after the plane they were travelling in crashed in thick jungle, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro said.

The siblings were rescued by the military near the border between Colombia’s Caqueta and Guaviare provinces, close to where the small plane had crashed.

The plane – a Cessna 206 – was carrying seven people on a route between Araracuara, in Amazonas province, and San Jose del Guaviare, a city in Guaviare province, when it issued a mayday alert due to engine failure in the early hours of May 1.

Three adults, including the pilot and the children’s mother Magdalena Mucutuy, died as a result of the crash and their bodies were found inside the plane. The four siblings, aged 13, 9, 4, as well as a now 12-month-old baby, survived the impact.

Colombia president retracts claim children found alive after plane crash

The children were transported by army medical plane to a military airport in the capital Bogota at around 00.30am (local time) on Saturday.

Narcizo Mucutuy, the grandfather of the three girls and one boy, told reporters he was delighted at the news of their rescue.

“As the grandfather to my grandchildren who disappeared in the jungles of the Yari, at this moment I am very happy,” he said.

Photos shared by Colombia’s military showed a group of soldiers with the four children in the middle of the jungle.

“A joy for the whole country! The four children who were lost … in the Colombian jungle appeared alive,” Petro said in a message via Twitter.

Petro initially reported that the children, originally from the Huitoto Indigenous group, had been found on May 17 in a message on Twitter but later deleted the post, saying the information was unconfirmed.

Colombian soldiers and Indigenous men assist the children in a jungle in Caqueta province. Photo: Colombia’s Armed Force Press Office via AP

A massive search by 160 soldiers and 70 Indigenous people with intimate knowledge of the jungle had been under way ever since for the youngsters, garnering global attention.

The area is home to jaguars, snakes and other predators, as well as armed drug smuggling groups, but ongoing clues – footprints, a diaper, half-eaten fruit – led authorities to believe they were on the right track.

Worried that the children would continue wandering and become ever more difficult to locate, the air force dumped 10,000 fliers into the forest with instructions in Spanish and the children’s own Indigenous language, telling them to stay put.

The leaflets also included survival tips, and the military dropped food parcels and bottled water.

Rescuers had also been broadcasting a message recorded by the children’s grandmother, urging them not to move.

The wreckage of the small plane that crashed in a jungle in Caqueta province. File photo: AFP/Colombian army

Huitoto children learn hunting, fishing and gathering and the kids’ grandfather had said the children are well acquainted with the jungle.

“Today we have had a magical day,” Petro told the media upon his return from Cuba, where he signed a six-month truce with Colombia’s last active guerilla group, the ELN.

“Getting closer and attaining peace in the agreement that is moving forward with the ELN … And now I return and the first news is that indeed the Indigenous communities that were in the search and the military forces found the children 40 days later,” he said.

“They were together, they are weak, let’s let the doctors assess them. They found them, it makes me very happy,” Petro added.

Colombian soldiers searching for the missing children in the forest in Caqueta. File photo: AFP/Colombian army

Defence Minister Ivan Velasquez paid tribute to the various army units’ “unshakeable and tireless” work, as well as to the Indigenous people who took part in the search.

Army rescuers “immediately took charge of and stabilised” the siblings, who were transferred to San Jose del Guaviare, according to the minister, and then later to Bogota.

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