The youngsters ate “three kilograms of farina”, a rough cassava flour generally utilized by indigenous tribes within the Amazon area, stated spokesperson Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez Suárez.
“Days after the crash, they ate the farina which they had carried there… but they (eventually) ran out of food and decided to look for a place where they could stay alive,” Suárez stated.
“They were malnourished but fully conscious and lucid when we found them,” he added.
“Their indigenous origins allowed them to acquire a certain immunity against diseases in the jungle and having knowledge of the jungle itself – knowing what to eat and what not to eat, as well as finding water kept them alive – which would not have been possible (if they) were not used to that type of hostile environment.”
The 4 youngsters – 13-year-old Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy, nine-year-old Soleiny Jacobombaire Mucutuy, four-year-old Tien Ranoque Mucutuy and toddler Cristin Ranoque Mucutuy – are at the moment recovering in a hospital within the Colombian capital Bogota after being taken there by air ambulance flown by the Colombian Air Force on Saturday, officers stated.
Medical experiences say they’re dehydrated and nonetheless “cannot eat food” – however are effectively and out of hazard.
The aircraft’s pilot, Hernando Murcia Morales, and Yarupari indigenous chief Herman Mendoza Hernández have been additionally killed within the accident.
The youngsters’s disappearance sparked a large military-led search operation that noticed a couple of hundred Colombian particular forces troops and over 70 indigenous scouts combing the deep forest.
The 4 have been ultimately present in an space away from bushes.
They informed officers that they’d discovered a canine – a Belgian Shepherd search canine named Wilson that belonged to particular forces.
“The kids told us that they spent three or four days with Wilson and that they (found) him quite skinny,” he added.
Hopes for the kids’s survival waned because the weeks went on.
Their family members shared that they endured “many sleepless nights worrying” till the kids have been discovered.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who visited the kids in hospital on Saturday, celebrated their return and stated their survival “would be remembered in history.”
“They are children of the jungle and now they are children of Colombia,” Petro stated.
Source: www.9news.com.au
