A special envoy of Chadian President Idriss Deby has delivered a special message to Libyan leader Muammar Kadhafi, briefing him on the alleged plan to abduct 103 children from Chad to France, according to a Libyan government source.
A special envoy of Chadian President Idriss Deby has delivered a special message to Libyan leader Muammar Kadhafi, briefing him on the alleged plan to abduct 103 children from Chad to France, according to a Libyan government source.
Chadian State Minister for Basic Infrastructures, Adam Younousmi, delivered the message from President Deby Tuesday.
In the message, President Déby informed the Libyan leader that N’djamena would take legal measures against a French charity organisation, Zoe’s Ark, which attempted to fly the children on a chartered plane from Abeche in Chad to France.
“The world has heard about this attempt by this French organisation, which is operating in Chad under the form of humanitarian action, while carrying out debasing actions that are shocking to the world, the Chadian people and the humanity in the 21st century,” the Chadian President wrote in his message.
Some 17 European nationals, including the plane’s crew of 7 Spaniards and 9 French nationals belonging to the NGO, as well as three journalists, have been remanded in N’djamena prison.
The French nationals were charged with ”kidnapping of minors” and “fraud”, while the crew members and the Chadian nationals among those arrested were charged with complicity to kidnapping.
The Europeans were arrested last Thursday as they prepared to fly the children, ostensibly to safety in France, on the basis that their lives were in danger due to the war in Darfur.
In his address at a dinner in honour of Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in May 2006, Kadhafi had cited “the serious violations by officials of the UN, humanitarian organisations and UN forces operating in Africa against children, particularly girls, across the continent”.
He said one should not keep silent over the violations
