12 June 2023 , 09:26
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The four young children found deep in the Amazon jungle after 40 days now face a long stay in the hospital, as the Father says they will eventually tell their story.
Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy, aged 13, Soleiny Jacobombaire Mucutuy, 9, Tien Ranoque Mucutuy, 4, and baby Cristin Ranoque Mucutuy survived a deadly plane crash in Colombia.
"They will tell their stories and you will hear them", said Manuel Ranoque, the father of the one-year-old and five-year-old siblings, after visiting them at Bogota’s military hospital.
The four were travelling with their mother from the Amazonian village of Araracuara to San José del Guaviare in the early hours of May 1 when the light aircraft crashed.
They will now stay in hospital for two weeks.
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Colombian Army checking one of the four Indigenous children who were found alive (Colombian Presidency/AFP via Get)Their mother, Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia, died along with two other adult passengers: pilot Hernando Murcia Morales and Yarupari indigenous leader Herman Mendoza Hernández.
The whereabouts of the eldest siblings' father is unknown and Manuel said he has been unable to get information from the oldest child as they are malnourished.
But he said "The one thing" Lesly cleared up, was that their mother was alive for about four days after the plane crashed.
"The one thing that [13-year-old Lesly] has cleared up for me is that, in fact, her mother was alive for four days," Mr Ranoque told reporters outside the hospital.
He said: "Before she died, she said to them: ‘Maybe you should go. You guys are going to see the kind of man your dad is, and he’s going to show you the same kind of great love that I have shown you.'"
Colombian Presidency shows Colombian President Gustavo Petro (R) greeting a nurse (Colombian Presidency/AFP via Get)It's not immediately clear why the family was traveling without the father, Manuel.
After desperate searching in the thick rainforest for over a month, authorities were eventually able to locate the children after hearing the cries of the youngest child after 40 days.
"They were very weak, we could find them by listening to the cries of the youngest one, but they were really tired, they were no longer on the move, like in the first few weeks", Indigenous leader Lucho Acosta told CNN on Saturday.
The key to the four siblings' remarkable survival — in the jungle teeming with animals, insects and snakes — was their familiarity with the rainforest's fruits, said authorities and relatives.
Huitoto people learn hunting, fishing and gathering from an early age.
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The children's aunt, Damarys Mucutuy, said the family would regularly play a "survival game" together growing up.
One of the four children resting at a hospital bed in Bogota on June 10, 2023 (Colombian Presidency/AFP via Get)The younger children likely survived thanks to the eldest sibling, Lesly. She used the knowledge of the rainforest her mother had passed on to her to keep them safely nourished.
Damarys said: "When we played, we set up like little camps. [Lesly] knew what fruits she can't eat because there are many poisonous fruits in the forest. And she knew how to take care of a baby".
Edwin Paki, one of the indigenous leaders who took part in the search effort, told reporters: "There's a fruit, similar to passionfruit, called avichure.
"They were looking for seeds to eat from an avichure tree about a kilometre and a half from the site of the plane crash."
One of the children said they hid in tree trunks to protect themselves from animals and mosquitoes, according to Valencia.
And at one point, they had to scare off a wild dog.
Sofia Petro (C), daughter of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, greeting one of the Indigenous children (Colombian Presidency/AFP via Get)Rescue worker Nicolas Ordonez Gomes told public broadcast channel RTVC about the moment they discovered the children.
"The eldest daughter, Lesly, with the little one in her arms, ran towards me. Lesly said: 'I'm hungry,'" he said.
While the boy said: "I want some bread and sausage."
The children are expected to stay in hospital for around two weeks.
A video released by the air force on Friday showed a helicopter using lines to pull the four siblings up because it couldn't land in the dense rainforest where they were found.
The military tweeted pictures on Friday showing a group of soldiers and volunteers posing with the children, who were wrapped in thermal blankets.
A soldier standing next to the wreckage of an aircraft that crashed in the Colombian Amazon (Colombian army/AFP via Getty Ima)Speaking to BBC Mundo, indigenous expert Alex Rufino said the children were in "a very dark, very dense jungle, where the largest trees in the region are".
He continued: "It is an area that has not been explored. The towns are small, and they are next to the river, not in the jungle."
President Gustavo Petro praised the children and their relationship with the environment.
He said: "They are children of the jungle, and now they are also children of Colombia."