Agencies begin reuniting 83 kids, families in Chad

N’DJAMENA, Chad (AP) — Government and U.N. agencies have begun reuniting the families of 83 children caught up in an adoption row between Chad and France, a Chadian minister said Saturday.

The children were taken to Adre, a town that borders Sudan, on Friday before being taken to nearby villages where their families live, said Carmel Souvi Ngarmbatina, the social action minister.

An additional 13 children will be taken to Tine, another town that borders Sudan, from where they will be reunited with their families, said Ngarmbatina.

She said a final group of six children will be reunited later with families who live in a Sudanese border village.

Ngarmbatina said Spain had donated $1.6 million to fund health centers, water drilling and education projects to serve 500,000 children, including the 103 who are going to be reunited with their families, she said.

The U.N. World Food Program will also provide food for the schools.

Six French aid workers with a charity called Zoe’s Ark had claimed the 103 children were orphans from Darfur, Sudan. They tried in October to fly the children to France for adoption, but Chadians working for the charity alerted the police.

In December, a Chadian court found the aid workers guilty of kidnapping and sentenced them to eight years in jail with hard labor. That sentence was commuted to eight years in jail when they were transferred to France under a judicial agreement.

Investigations showed the children were Chadian, not Sudanese, and that most of the children had at least one parent or close adult relative.