Exhausted but happy, four indigenous children who had been missing for more than a month in the Colombian Amazon rainforest were reunited with their relatives Saturday, in a happy ending to a nerve-racking saga that gripped the nation.
The siblings, who had been wandering alone in the jungle after surviving a small plane crash that left their mother and two other adults dead, were discovered after an intense rescue operation involving sniffer dogs, helicopters and aircraft.
Looking thin and frail, the children were transported by army medical plane to a military hospital in Bogotá, according to AFP journalists at the scene.
Defence Minister Iván Velásquez Gómez, who visited them in the hospital with President Gustavo Petro, said they are recovering, but cannot yet eat solid food.
The youngest two children, now five and one, spent their birthdays in the jungle, as Lesly, the oldest at just 13 years old, guided them through the ordeal.
“It is thanks to her, her courage and her leadership, that the three others were able to survive, with her care, her knowledge of the jungle,” Velásquez said.
General Pedro Sánchez, who led the search operation, credited indigenous people involved in the rescue effort with finding the children.
“We found the children: miracle, miracle, miracle!” he told reporters.
