The army rescued the children, who are indigenous, near the border between the provinces of Caqueta and Guaviari in Colombia, at the scene of the crash of a small plane.
The Cessna 206 was carrying 7 people on a route between Araraquara, Amazonas, and San Jose del Guaviare, a town in Guaviare, when it issued an SOS due to engine failure in the early hours of May 1.
3 adults, including the pilot, died in the plane crash and their bodies were found inside, while the four children, aged 13, 9 and 4, survived, in addition to an 11 month old baby.
Footage released by the Colombian military showed a group of soldiers with four children in the middle of the forest.
And the important question that comes to mind is how did the youngster survive 5 weeks in the Amazon rainforest? What food did they eat during this long period?
A Colombian special forces official said eating cassava flour, a flour similar to sorghum flour but extracted from the root of the yuca plant, helped keep children alive. Troop spokesman Pedro Arnulfo Sanchez Suarez said the children ate “3 kilograms of cassava flour”, the coarse flour commonly used by indigenous tribes in the Amazon region. Suarez added: “Days after the accident they ate the flour they had on the plane, but in the end they ran out of food and decided to look for a place where they could survive.” “They were malnourished, but they knew when we found them,” he continued. The speaker continues: “Their tribal origins allowed them to acquire some immunity against forest diseases and to know the nature of the forest itself, such as what they eat and what not to eat. eat, as well as finding water to keep alive, which was not possible (unless they were used to this kind of hostile environment). The four children are currently recovering in a hospital in the Colombian capital, Bogota. Medical reports confirmed that they are dehydrated and “still cannot eat solid food”, but they are fine and out of danger. “What is needed now is the stabilization of their health,” Colombian Defense Minister Ivan Velazquez told reporters gathered outside the hospital.
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