This is what the four siblings experienced in the jungle – an overview This is what the four siblings experienced in the jungle – an overview

Four siblings who had been missing in the Colombian jungle for 40 days have been rescued.

The children aged 13, 9, 4 and 1 experienced a true odyssey. More and more is now being revealed about what the children have experienced:

Mother would have lived for days

Not only were the four siblings aboard a propeller plane that crashed in the Colombian jungle, but so were their mother and two pilots.

One of the pilots reported an engine failure on 1 May. It wasn’t until May 16 that a rescue team found the plane in the rainforest, which was difficult to access – and also found the three adults dead. However, there was no trace of the children, so the Colombian authorities launched a large-scale search involving about 150 soldiers.

According to the father of two of the rescued children, the mother was still alive four days after the plane crash. His daughter told him this, Manuel Ranoque told reporters on Sunday, as reported by the Guardian.

According to Ranoque, the mother ordered the children to leave before she died. The children couldn’t have told him much more. “It’s not easy to ask her,” says Ranoque. They are very exhausted after 40 days without proper food and sleep.

Children ate cassava flour and fruit

Another relative of the children, Fidencio Valencia, also shared more details with the media about how the siblings managed to survive. At first they fed on farina, cassava flour, and later mainly on fruits from the rainforest. “After the farina was gone, they started eating seeds.”

As members of an indigenous community, the children had knowledge of the plants and fruits of the jungle. Especially the eldest daughter, Lesly, already knew a lot about life in the rainforest and protected and nurtured her younger siblings.

Fear of FARC soldiers?

The exact circumstances of the search continue to raise questions – in particular why the children were found after such a long time. According to the army general in charge of the search, Pedro Sanchez, the children were found just five kilometers from the crash site. Rescue teams came to within 20 meters of the site several times, but the children were overlooked.

It is speculated that the children may have been hiding from the uniformed soldiers, mistaking them for members of the Colombian guerrilla organization FARC. Father Manuel Ranoque is threatened by a splinter group of the FARC. According to Alicia Méndez, a journalist from the largest Colombian daily newspaper “El Tiempo”, the children feared that they would be found by the wrong search team.

Ranoque told the media on Sunday: “The Carolina Ramírez front is looking for me to kill. There are threats against me, I am a target for them. They have economic interests and if you don’t do what they say you’re their enemy.”

The Carolina Ramírez Front is a splinter group of the Farc rebel group, which does not support the peace agreement signed in 2016. She is involved in drug trafficking and is said to have killed four minors in the south of the country.

Accompanied by rescue dog Wilson

The role of search dog Wilson provides a nicer aspect of the story: the German Shepherd is apparently largely due to the fact that the children have finally been found. The eldest daughter Lesly confirmed to El Tiempo journalist Méndez that the four survivors in the rainforest were sometimes accompanied by a dog before it disappeared back into the jungle.

It is believed to be Wilson. This was rather a rescue dog with the searchers and ran away. Rescuers believe Wilson deliberately left trails that eventually led to the children. Since the dog has continued to disappear, the Colombian military is still searching for the animal rescuer, according to a post on Twitter.

(con)