Colombian Armed Forces/Portal
A soldier stands near the wreckage of a plane while searching for child survivors of a plane that crashed in the Amazon.
CNN –
Four young children, found last month after surviving 40 days in the Amazon rainforest following a plane crash, have been discharged from hospital and are in good condition, according to Colombian authorities.
The four children, aged between 1 and 13, have been treated at the Colombian military hospital in Bogotá since they were found on June 9th.
They were released from the medical facility on Friday and are now staying in a homeless shelter, according to Astrid Garces, director of Colombia’s children’s welfare agency ICBF, at a news conference on Friday.
The children live in one of the 188 shelters that the agency operates across Colombia.
“Considering everything they’ve been through, they’re actually fine,” Garces said.
“Their physical health is perfect and at the hospital they were looked after by a team of psychologists and anthropologists,” he added.
Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy, 13, Soleiny Jacobombaire Mucutuy, 9, Tien Ranoque Mucutuy, 4, and infant Cristin Ranoque Mucutuy were stranded in the Amazon jungle on May 1 after a fatal plane crash that killed their mother Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia along with other passengers and the pilot died on the plane.
Traces of their survival prompted a massive military-led search that saw more than a hundred Colombian special forces and 70 indigenous scouts combing the area.
For weeks, searches turned up only tantalizing clues, including footprints, a dirty diaper and a bottle, until they were found last month and Colombian President Gustavo Petro dubbed them “children of the jungle”.
According to an official with Colombia’s military special forces, the children ate three kilograms of farina, a coarse cassava flour commonly used by indigenous tribes in the Amazon to stay alive.
On Friday, the ICBF said it expects to file a case in family court to decide who will get custody of the four children, through a process known as “reinstatement of rights.”
Her grandparents had previously appealed to the children to give her back to them.
Both the youngest children’s father, Manuel Ranoque, and their maternal grandparents have filed for custody of them and a family court must decide their fate.
The ICBF did not comment further on the legal matter, saying it was a private matter.