Bogota: President Gustavo Petro announced on Wednesday that four indigenous children who had been missing for more than two weeks following a plane crash in the Colombian Amazon had been found alive. He expressed "joy for the country."
Petro tweeted the information, stating that the military had conducted "arduous search efforts" before finding the kids. To find the children who were aboard the plane that crashed in the Amazon on May 1, killing three adults, authorities sent out more than 100 soldiers and sniffer dogs.
The four kids, ages 13, 9, 4, and an 11-month-old infant, are thought to have been lost in the southern Caqueta department jungle since the crash.
The military stated earlier on Wednesday that rescuers' search efforts were stepped up after they discovered a "shelter built in an improvised way with sticks and branches," which led them to believe there were survivors.
On the jungle floor, among the branches, were seen scissors and a hair tie in images provided by the military. A baby's bottle and a piece of fruit that had been partially consumed had previously been discovered.
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Soldiers discovered the bodies of the pilot and two adults on Monday and Tuesday. They had been travelling by plane from a jungle location to San Jose del Guaviare, one of the major towns in Colombia's Amazon rainforest. Ranoque Mucutuy, one of the deceased passengers, was the Huitoto woman who gave birth to the four children.
Large trees that could reach a height of 40 metres, wild animals, and a lot of rain made the "Operation Hope" search challenging. Three helicopters have been used to assist, and one of them broadcast an audio message in the Huitoto language from the children's grandmother telling them to stop moving through the jungle.
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The cause of the plane crash has not been disclosed by the authorities. Just minutes before the plane vanished from radars, the pilot had reported engine issues, according to the Colombian disaster response organisation. Since there aren't many roads in the area and getting there by river is challenging, air travel is frequently used.
