Cassava, Seeds, and Fruit: How Four Children Survived Forty Days in the Colombian Jungle | outside

Unbelievable but true: After 40 days of searching, the four children who went missing after a plane crash in the Colombian jungle this weekend have been found. Thanks to the cassava flour and knowledge of the rainforest fruit, the foursome managed to keep their lives alive, the children’s uncle, Fidencio Valencia, told several journalists gathered at the hospital where the children are currently staying. Children are expected to stay there for at least two weeks.

“When the plane crashed, they took the farinha (cassava flour, ed.) from the wreckage. That’s how they survived,” Valencia said. “After they finished with the farinha, they started eating the seeds.” The children also ate the fruit. The four of them were so lucky: it was harvest time.

Al-Rubai’s aunt told a Colombian radio station that although the children were dehydrated and covered in insect bites, they were doing well. She added that the children receive psychological care.

Leslie Mokotoi, 13, her siblings Solini, 9, and Tin Noriel, 4, and sister Christine, 1 year old while missing, all belong to the indigenous Huitoto community. They left with their mother on May 1 in Cesna from the village of Araraquara in the Amazon. On board was another passenger and the pilot. The plane was en route to San Jose del Guaviare when it developed engine problems and crashed. The adults died.

When the emergency services were able to reach the hard-to-reach crash site two weeks later, they found the bodies of the adults. After that, a large-scale search operation was launched under the name Operation Hope for the four children.

Since then, several clues have been found that the four may still be alive, such as footprints, pieces of clothing, half-eaten fruit, scissors, a baby bottle, a diaper, a towel, and a shelter made of branches. A bottle cap and a pair of shoes, believed to belong to 4-year-old Tian, ​​were also found.

Fog and dense forests hampered the search. Rescue workers played over loudspeakers a recorded message from their grandmother, who urged her grandchildren in their native language to stay in one place.

Rescue teams eventually passed the place where the children were found several times. At first, these teams ignored the children because they were so weak. “And their strength was only sufficient to breathe, or to grasp small fruits to feed themselves, or to drink a drop of water in the forest.”

The children were found after more than a month of searching in the jungles in southeastern Colombia by soldiers, firefighters and civil aviation personnel.