Desk Report
Publish: 18 May 2023, 12:12 pm
Authorities had deployed more than 100 soldiers with sniffer dogs to search for the minors || Photo: Colombian army via AFP
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 Wednesday, declaring “joy for the country”.
Petro shared the news on Twitter,
saying the children were discovered after “arduous search efforts” by the
military.
Authorities had deployed more
than 100 soldiers with sniffer dogs to search for the minors who were
travelling in a Cessna C206 light aircraft that crashed on May 1, killing three
adults.
Rescuers believe the children –
who in addition to the 11-month-old included a 13, 9, and 4-year-old – have
been wandering through the jungle in the southern Caqueta department since the
crash.
Earlier Wednesday, the armed
forces said that search efforts intensified after rescuers came across a
“shelter built in an improvised way with sticks and branches,” leading them to
believe there were survivors.
In photographs released by the
armed forces, scissors and a hair tie could be seen among branches on the
jungle floor.
Previously, a baby’s drinking
bottle and a half-eaten piece of fruit had been found.
On Monday and Tuesday, soldiers
found the bodies of the pilot and two adults who had been flying from a jungle
location to San Jose 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, who are from the Huitoto
ethnicity.
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Giant trees that can grow up to
40 metres tall, wild animals and heavy rainfall made the “Operation Hope”
search difficult.
Three helicopters have been used
to help, one of which blasted out a recorded message from the children’s
grandmother in the Huitoto language telling them to stop moving through the
jungle.
Authorities have not indicated
what caused the plane crash.
The pilot had reported problems
with the engine just minutes before the plane disappeared from radars,
Colombia’s disaster response body said.
It is a region with few roads
that is also difficult to access by river, so aeroplane transport is common.
The Huitoto, also spelled Witoto,
are known for living in harmony with the remote jungle, and for their hunting,
fishing and gathering skills which may have helped the children to survive.
Exploitation, disease and
assimilation have reduced the population sharply over many decades.
Petro, who announced the rescue,
is Colombia’s first leftist president.
He came to power last August but
has been unable to usher in the fundamental reforms in labour law, healthcare,
pensions and the judiciary that he promised during his campaign.
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