'Children Of Jungle': President Elated As Missing Kids Found Alive In Amazon 40 Days After Plane Crash

Colombian President Gustavo Petro said that four children who went missing in Colombia’s Amazon jungle have been found alive after 40 days.

4 children found alive after 40 days in Colombia's Amazon. ( Image Source :Twitter @petrogustavo )

Four children who went missing in Colombia’s Amazon jungle have been found alive after 40 days, said the country’s President Gustavo Petro. He said that the finding of the children was "a joy for the whole country" and that it was a "magical day". The siblings were lost after their plane crashed in Colombia's Amazon jungle. The children, aged 13, nine, four and a one-year-old baby, were on board the plane with their mother, a pilot and a co-pilot when it crashed on May 1. BBC reported that their mother and the other adults on board the plane died. 

President Petro meanwhile added: "They were alone, they themselves achieved an example of total survival which will remain in history. These children are today the children of peace and the children of Colombia." 

“Their learning from indigenous families and their learning of living in the jungle has saved them,” Petro told reporters on Friday, as quoted by CNN. Petro said the children were all together when they were found, adding they had demonstrated an example of “total survival that will be remembered in history.”

“They are children of the jungle and now they are children of Colombia,” he added.

¡Una alegría para todo el país! Aparecieron con vida los 4 niños que estaban perdidos hace 40 días en la selva colombiana. pic.twitter.com/cvADdLbCpm

— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) June 9, 2023

The President also shared a photograph of several members of the military and Indigenous community tending to the siblings, reported BBC. 

He said the children were now receiving medical attention - and that he had spoken to their grandfather, who told him "the mother jungle returned them". 

The children and their mother were flying in a Cessna 206 aircraft from Araracuara, Amazonas province, to San José del Guaviare, when it issued a mayday alert due to engine failure. The army found the body of three adults who died in the crash 

Preliminary information from the civil aviation authority suggested the children escaped the wreckage and wandered into the rainforest to find help, Reuters news agency reported, as quoted by BBC. 

After children were found to be lost, a massive search began and in May. Rescuers recovered items left behind by the children, including a child's drinking bottle, a pair of scissors, a hair tie and a makeshift shelter. 

It was after the teams found small footprints, they concluded that the children survived the collision. 

BBC reported that the children belong to the Huitoto indigenous group and members of their community hoped that their knowledge of fruits and jungle survival skills would give them a better chance of surviving. 

Indigenous people had also joined the search operation and helicopters broadcasted a message from the children's grandmother, recorded in the Huitoto language, urging them to stop moving to make them easier to locate. 

 Earlier, the Colombian president came under criticism last month when a tweet published on his account announced that the children had been found. 

 However later, he erased the tweet the next day saying that the information - which his office had been given by Colombia's child welfare agency - could not be confirmed.