New Claims of Kidnapping Alleged Against Zoe's Ark

Chad will investigate reports that 74 Chadian children were flown to France weeks ago without their parents' knowledge, a senior judicial official said Thursday.

The reports come on the heels of Chad's kidnapping charges against six French workers with the group Zoe's Ark who are accused of trying to take 103 other children out of Chad to France. The group said the children were orphans from Sudan's conflict-ridden Darfur region, but the French Foreign Ministry and others have cast doubt on the claims.

The Zoe's Ark affair has infuriated Chadians, but it is not known if the group was involved in the alleged transport of the 74 children whose cases have now come to light, said Masngarel Kagah of the public prosecutor's department.

The Network of Human Rights Associations in Chad wrote to the public prosecutor's department with details about the 74, who were said to have been flown to a military airport outside Paris on Sept. 17, Kagah said. The network gathered the information after several parents reported their children missing, Kagah said.

I'm beginning to sense a pattern here.

What exactly has Zoe's Ark been doing in Chad? It would appear that the "charity" had been taking advantage of the humanitarian nightmare in Darfur and exploiting Chadians at the same time. The families in France who have taken in these children are also being exploited since they're financing these efforts and may not be aware of what is really going on.