Brazil: two children found after 27 days alone in the Amazon jungle

Two indigenous children, aged 7 and 9, were found suffering from severe malnutrition after spending 27 days lost in the Amazon jungle in Brazil and eating only wild fruits.

 

The children named Glaucon and Gleison were found on Tuesday by a relative 35 km from where they had disappeared suffering from severe malnutrition and dehydration, Januario Carneiro da Cunha Neto, coordinator of the special indigenous health district (DSEI) of Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazonas, where the children had disappeared, told the AFP on Friday.

 

Hospitalized, they are now gaining weight and their lives are not in danger, he added. The two brothers of the Mura ethnic group had been missing since February 18, when they went hunting birds in the jungle, in the municipality of Manicore, 330 km from Manaus.

 

During their stay in the jungle, they only drank rainwater and lake water, and ate sorva (sorbus domestica), a fruit with a high carbohydrate and fat content, Carneiro da Cunha Neto said. Rosinete da Silva Carvalho, mother of the children and their 10 siblings, told the local press that they used to eat sorva, because my eldest son always took a bag when he went hunting.

 

The images published by the local media show the children extremely emaciated after their rescue. Their discovery is a coincidence, as the official search was suspended a week after their disappearance.

 

An acquaintance of the family who went looking for wood ended up finding the children by chance, said the DSEI coordinator. During the long days they tried unsuccessfully to find their way home, the eldest child, Gleison, took care of his younger brother, carrying him on his back when he was too exhausted due to lack of food and water.