Rescuers found the siblings, aged 13, 9, 4 and 1, on Friday, after combing the remote Amazon wilderness for five weeks, following scattered clues to their survival that included in a makeshift shelter and half-eaten fruit. The children are recovering in a hospital.
Last month, searchers found the wreckage and the bodies of three adults, including the children’s mother, but the brothers – who are members of the Huitoto Indigenous group – left the crash site. Details are slowly emerging on how they survived the 40 days.
Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy, 13, told the father of her two youngest siblings that their mother survived four days after the plane crash on May 1, Ranoque told reporters outside the hospital where the children on Sunday.
“Before he died, their mom told them something like, ‘Get out of here,'” Ranoque said. The father added that it is difficult to get the details of the children, who have not eaten well and are tired of what they have suffered.
They are recuperating in a military hospital in Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, said the officialsand was visited by President Gustavo Petro over the weekend.
“Lesly, Tien, Soleiny and Cristín are doing well, in an amazing recovery process that shows the strength and power they have,” by Adriana Velasquez Lasprilladeputy director of the Institute of Family Welfare, Colombia’s child protection agency.
Shortly after the small Cessna plane took off on May 1, the pilot reported engine failure in a radio call, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Colombia. The plane disappeared from radar. When the crash site was reached more than two weeks later, the plane could be seen stuck on the forest floor — its nose and cockpit crushed. The three adults were discovered dead, but the siblings disappeared from the scene. The next report said the children were sitting in the back of the plane, which was not badly damaged.
Fidencio Valencia, an uncle, told reporters last weekend that the brothers initially sustained themselves on cassava flour known as fariña, which was brought on board the plane, according to the Associated Press. Flour is a common source of carbohydrates in the Amazon region. “When the plane crashed, they took a fariña, and with that, they were saved,” Valencia said. “After the fariña runs out, they start eating the seeds.”
In an interview with El Tiempo newspaper, rescuer Henry Guerrero said the children also found one of the 100 emergency supply kits scattered by the military – as well as wild fruits and plants in the forest.
Last Sunday, the Colombian military Released images of two colorful drawings produced by the two eldest children from their hospital. “This drawing represents the hope of an entire nation,” military officials tweeted.
Over the weekend, government officials thanked Indigenous communities for their participation in “Operation Miracle,” as the search mission was called. The help of the Siona and Araracuara communities “decisive” in the discovery of the children, the Minister of Defense Iván Velásquez Gómez said on Twitter.
Victoria Bisset and Ana Vanessa Herrero contributed to this report.
