Kids Rescued in Amazon Were Fleeing Recruitment by Armed Group, Father Says

The four children who escaped a plane crash and survived 40 days alone in the Amazon rainforest were quite literally running for their lives, according to the children’s father. Manuel Ronoque said in an interview that his kids and their mother were fleeing an encroaching armed group that they feared would try and recruit their children, according to The New York Times. “I was very scared the children would be recruited,” Ranoque said, noting that the soldiers who took control of their home region “are capable of recruiting a child as young as 2.” However, his late wife’s brother Dairo Mucutuy reportedly told the Daily Mail that his sister left after her husband brought back a woman he was allegedly having an affair with. Ranoque’s claim comes as he faces allegations of domestic violence against the children’s mother from his father-in-law. The four kids were found in the Colombian jungle last week after a prolonged search led by the country’s military forces and Indigenous communities. According to reports, they survived the ordeal by salvaging a bag of flour from the plane crash that killed their mother and two other passengers, then scavenging fruits and seeds when it ran out.