Four Missing Children of Same Parents, Discovered 40 Days After

Four missing children of same parents have been discovered 40 days after they got missing in the jungle and now the joy of family members know no bounds.

The children aged 13, nine, five and one, had survived a Cessna 206 aircraft crash which claimed the lives of their mother, the pilot, and a local leader.

It took the sterling guidance of the eldest, Leslie to survive the ordeal of the long sojourn through the jungle before they were eventually discovered following an intense rescue operation.

The children were looking frail and thin when discovered in the Colombian Amazon forest, says an AFP report, transported by army medical plane to a military hospital in Bogota.

Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez, who visited them in the hospital with President Gustavo Petro, said they are recovering, but cannot yet eat solid food.

The four missing children had survived at first by eating a little flour (which was on board the plane), then seeds

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Amazon forest, courtesy of Getty Images

People were profuse with thanks to Leslie for the rare leadership qualities she showed that enabled them to survive the ordeal.

“It is thanks to her, her value and her leadership, that the three others were able to survive, with her care, her knowledge of the jungle,” Velasquez said.

“We found the children: miracle, miracle, miracle!” General Pedro Sanchez, who led the search operation, told reporters. Adding that it was ‘A joy for the whole country’

The four discovered kids were of the Huitoto Indigenous group got lost in the jungle May 1, when the Cessna 206 in which they were traveling crashed.

The crash occurred only minutes after the plane took off from a deep Amazon area known as Araracuara on the 350-kilometer (217-mile) journey to the town of San Jose del Guaviare,  and the pilot had reported of engine problems.

Officials said the group had been fleeing threats from members of an armed group.

“They are happy to see the family… they have all their senses,” the children’s grandfather, Fidencio Valencia, told reporters shortly after visiting them.

“They are children of the bush,” Valencia said, adding that they know how to survive in the jungle.

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They “survived at first by eating a little flour (which was on board the plane), then seeds,” he said.

At the request of their father, General Sanchez will be made the youngest child’s godfather.

“For me, it is an honor,” the visibly moved officer told local television, placing his hand on his heart.

A massive search involving 160 soldiers and 70 Indigenous people with intimate knowledge of the jungle was launched after the crash, garnering global attention.

Army chief Helder Giraldo said rescuers had covered over 2,600 kilometers (1650 miles) in total to locate the children. “Something that seemed impossible was achieved,” Giraldo said on Twitter.