Brazil: Indigenous man returns to tribe after rare encounter in Amazon village
Footage shows the man barefoot and wearing a small loincloth. Locals believe the man was asking for fire.
Sunday 16 February 2025 01:58, UK
A young man from an isolated indigenous tribe who approached a village in Brazil's Amazon returned voluntarily to his people less than 24 hours later.
The encounter happened on Wednesday 12 February in Bela Rosa, a community along the Purus River.
Footage shows him barefoot and wearing a small loincloth, seemingly calm and in good health as he carried two logs.
Locals believe the man was asking for fire.
Officials from Brazil's indigenous affairs agency, Funai, arrived soon after and took him to a nearby facility.
Funai said in a statement on Friday that the young man returned to the forest on Thursday afternoon.
It added that a team of health professionals was sent to see if he had been exposed to any disease to which isolated indigenous tribes have no immunity.
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They also said surveillance has been established to prevent people from reaching the isolated tribe's location.
As a policy, Brazil does not actively seek contact with these groups but instead establishes protected and monitored areas, such as Mamoria Grande, near where the encounter took place.