Colombian President Gustavo Petro said four young children survived like “children of the jungle” after surviving a plane crash and living in the Amazon for 40 days.
Reports say the children– identified as 3-year-old Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy, 9-year-old Soleiny Jacobombaire Mucutuy, 4-year-old Tien Ranoque Mucutuy and infant Cristin Ranoque Mucutuy– survived by eating “three kilograms (six pounds) of farina,” which is a coarse cassava flour commonly used by indigenous tribes.
“Their learning from indigenous families and their learning of living in the jungle has saved them,” Petro told reporters on Friday. The news came after they had been found 40 days after they went missing following a plane crash that killed their mother.
Petro said the children were found together, 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.
Authorities found them after hearing the cries of the youngest child, an infant, Indigenous leader Lucho Acosta told CNN on Saturday. He is the coordinator of Indigenous Scouts and assisted in the search.
“They were very weak, we could find them by listening to the cries of the youngest one, but they were really tired, they were no longer on the move, like in the first few weeks,” Acosta said.
The Colombian president tweeted an image that seems to show search crews treating the children in a forest clearing: “A joy for the whole country!” he captioned.
Their grandmother, María Fátima Valencia, said she was “going to hug all of them” and “thank everyone” as soon as they were reunited in their home city of Villavicencio, where they live.
“I’m going to encourage them, I’m going to push them forward, I need them here,” she said.
All four children are now recovering in Bogota hospital after being flown out by the Colombian Air Force in an air ambulance.
