This is a huge relief for an entire country. After wandering, left to themselves, for 40 days in the Amazon jungle of Colombia, the four children aged 13, 9, 4 and 1 year old who survived the crash of the small plane in which they were traveling, were found alive Friday, June 9.

"The four children lost 40 days ago in the Colombian jungle have been found alive," President Gustavo Petro said in a Twitter post accompanied by a photo of soldiers and indigenous people participating in the operation to find the siblings.

Army rescue workers "immediately took care of and stabilized" the four siblings, according to the Defense Ministry.

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Lesly, 13, Soleiny, 9, Tien Noriel, 4 and Cristin, 1, were pulled from the jungle the same evening, winched and transported by helicopter in the middle of the night to the city of San Jose del Guaviare (285 km southeast of Bogotá), according to images released by the ministry.

They were to be transferred by medical plane to Bogotá, to be treated in a military hospital.

Found 5 km from the accident

Originally from the Uitoto indigenous group, the children had been wandering alone in the jungle since the May 1 crash of the Cessna 206 in which they were traveling with their mother, the pilot and a relative. All three adults died, and their bodies were found by the military at the crash site.

According to the army, rescuers found the siblings about 5 km west of the crash site. "They are weak. Let the doctors make their prognosis," Petro told reporters.

"I just want to see them, touch them," grandfather Fidencio Valencia told AFP in Villaviciencio.

It was the "warrior" nature of Lesly, the eldest of the siblings, that allowed them to survive, said grandmother Fatima Valencia. "She usually always took care of her siblings when their mother was working. Gave them flour, cassava bread, bush fruit."

Photos released by the army show the children, among the thick vegetation, sitting on tarpaulins, surrounded by soldiers and natives giving them food and drink. They are in jeans and dirty long-sleeved T-shirt for the two biggest, feet wrapped in strips. Two others are swaddled in survival blankets.

The smallest, Cristin, is in the arms of one of her saviors. She turned a year old while wandering the jungle with her siblings, according to Colombian press. The four faces are serious, appear very emaciated.

A very hostile environment

More than 100 soldiers accompanied by sniffer dogs and dozens of indigenous people had been looking for children between the departments of Guaviare and Caqueta since the discovery of the plane, vertically, their noses planted on the ground, in the middle of thick vegetation.

Still according to the army, the rescuers of this "operation hope" have traveled in total, in more than a month of search, nearly 2,656 km in this impenetrable jungle, always "with an intact faith".

The chances of survival of children seemed to diminish day by day, in this very hostile environment where jaguars, pumas, snakes and other predators roam. Insects of all kinds are particularly voracious, and there is also the question of vital access to drinking water.

The region is also an area of strong influence of the dissidence of the FARC, an armed group with which peace talks have recently broken down.

Example of "total survival"

News of the children's disappearance had gone around the world, with videos and photos of the army's search operations, which followed their trail with the discovery of a bottle, scissors, shoes, diapers, chewed fruit, footprints and makeshift shelters.

On May 17, the president mistakenly announced that they had been found.

"Today was a magical day that, without a doubt, fills us with joy," the Colombian president rejoiced for good on his return from Cuba where the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN), the last guerrilla still active in the country, reached a six-month ceasefire agreement.

The children "were alone, they succeeded on their own. It is an example of total survival that will go down in history. These children are therefore today the children of peace and the children of Colombia," he said.

He also praised "the effective coordination between the military and the natives" during the search, an "example of an alliance to follow for the country".

Wilson, a six-year-old Belgian shepherd dog who got lost in recent days during the search has still not been found, lamented the head of state.

"We were never discouraged"

Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez paid tribute to the various units of the army, "unwavering and tiresome", as well as the indigenous people who participated in the search, spread over 320 km and then 20 square kilometers.

The Air Force had joined the operation, with three helicopters. Using a loudspeaker on board an aircraft, a message recorded by the children's grandmother was broadcast. Survival kits have been launched all over the jungle.

Satellite technologies had also been deployed to try to determine the path that children could have taken in this impenetrable green hell, rinsed daily by torrential rains.

"We were never discouraged," the grandmother said. She now hopes to get custody of the children "to give them a good education". "(...) It will be my pride. My daughter (who died in the accident) looks at me, she will encourage me spiritually and give me strength."

With AFP

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