Four indigenous children, including an 11-month-old baby, have been found alive in the dense Colombian Amazon after a plane crash more than two weeks ago, President Gustavo Petro said on Wednesday, declaring “joy for the country” .
Petro said on Twitter that the children were found after “arduous search efforts” by the military, which has yet to confirm the rescue.
More than 100 soldiers had been deployed with sniffer dogs to search for minors traveling on a plane that crashed on May 1, killing three adults, including the pilot and the children’s mother.
Colombian Air Force / Document via Reuters
Rescuers had said they believed the children — who in addition to the 11-month-old include a 13-year-old, nine and four-year-old — had been wandering in the jungle in southern Caqueta department since the accident.
Petro did not give any details about where the children had been rescued or how they survived alone in the jungle.
Avianline Charters, which owns the crashed plane, said one of its pilots in the search area was told the children had been found and “were being boated downriver and they were all alive.”
However, the company also said there was “no official confirmation” that the children were completely safe, and storms in the area still posed a risk to them reaching safety.
The armed forces had earlier said their search efforts intensified after rescuers came across a “makeshift shelter constructed of sticks and branches”, leading them to believe there were survivors.
In photographs released by the military, scissors, shoes and hair ties could be seen among the branches on the jungle floor.
A baby’s bottle and half-eaten pieces of fruit had been seen before the shelter was discovered.
On Monday and Tuesday, soldiers found the bodies of the pilot and two adults who had flown from a location in the jungle to San José del Guaviare, one of the main cities in Colombia’s Amazon rainforest.
One of the dead passengers, Ranoque Mucutuy, was the mother of the four children.
Giant trees that can reach 40 meters in height and heavy rains made the search for “Operation Hope” difficult.
Three helicopters were used to help, one of which flew a recorded message from the children’s grandmother in their native Huitoto language telling them to stop moving through the jungle.
Authorities have not said what caused the plane crash.
The pilot had reported engine trouble minutes before the plane disappeared from radar, Colombia’s disaster response agency said.
It is a region with few roads and is also difficult to access by river, so air transport is common.
The children are from the Huitoto indigenous community, also spelled Witoto, who are known for living in harmony with the remote jungle.
The community develops skills in hunting, fishing and gathering, which may have helped the children survive.
Exploitation, disease and assimilation have drastically reduced the population over many decades.
Petro, who announced the bailout, is Colombia’s first leftist president.
He came to power last August but has failed to introduce the fundamental reforms to labor law, healthcare, pensions and the judiciary that he promised during his campaign.
