Children in Chad abduction row say they have parents: aid agencies

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2007

ABECHE, Chad (AFP) — International aid agencies on Thursday rejected the war orphan label attached to 103 children at the centre of a child abduction scandal involving a French charity in Chad.

In a joint statement, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and UNICEF said 91 of the children had spoken of coming from a "family environment with at least one adult in a parental role".

"Therefore they cannot be considered to be orphans," ICRC spokeswoman Anna Schaaf told AFP in Geneva.

Schaaf said questioning of the children suggested that most of them were in fact Chadians.

Chad's security forces have arrested 19 people since a small French charity, Zoe's Ark, attempted to fly the children to France,...