Children who survived five weeks in Colombia jungle will tell own story:
father
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[June 12, 2023]
BOGOTA (Reuters) - Four Indigenous children who were missing for
more than five weeks in Colombia's southern jungle will tell their own
story about the ordeal, the father of the two youngest siblings said on
Sunday.
The children, aged 1 through 13, survived a May 1 plane crash that
killed their mother and two other adults and were found on Friday in
Caqueta province after weeks of searching by the military and Indigenous
communities. |
![](../images/061223PIX/news_m6.jpg)
Soldiers of the Colombian Air Force and
employees of the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF) give medical
attention inside a plane to the surviving children of a Cessna 206 plane
crash in the thick jungle, while they are transferred to Bogota by air
in San Jose del Guaviare, Colombia, June 9, 2023. Colombian Air
Force/Handout via REUTERS |
Their ordeal began in the early hours, when the Cessna 206
aircraft carrying seven people and traveling between Araracuara
airport in Caqueta and San Jose del Guaviare, a city in Guaviare
province, issued a mayday alert due to engine failure.
"They will tell their stories and you will hear them," said
Manuel Ranoque, the father of the 1-year-old and 5-year-old
siblings, after visiting them at Bogota's military hospital.
"It's not easy to ask them because the children went 40 days
without eating well, so I have not been able to get information
from the oldest child," Ranoque told reporters.
Ranoque also told reporters the children's mother had survived
for four days after the crash, an account disputed by another
family member who also spoke to journalists. Reuters was not
able to independently verify the information.
(Reporting by Herbert Villarraga and Liamar Ramos; Writing by
Carolina Pulice; Editing by Diane Craft)
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