ABECHE, Chad—Chadians chanting "no to the slave trade, no to child trafficking" protested on Wednesday against a French group accused of trying to abduct African children as France sought to avoid a row with its former colony.
Several hundred angry locals gathered outside the governor's office in the eastern town of Abeche, where nine French nationals and seven Spaniards were arrested last week as they tried to fly 103 children out of the impoverished state.
The detained French are members of a group called Zoe's Ark which said it wanted to place orphans aged 3-10 years from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region with European families.
"We can't accept this act of barbarity, of vandalism. Whether in the eighth century or the 20th century there shouldn't be these kinds of acts in Africa," shouted one protester.
United Nations and French officials have said it appears many of the children were from Chad and were not orphans.
The case has triggered outrage among Chadians, with many on the barren border with Sudan questioning the motives of scores of foreign aid groups that work with Darfur refugees.
Families of children missing in eastern Chad, itself riven by conflict and sheltering some 230,000 Sudanese refugees from Darfur, arrived at the orphanage where the 103 children are being held in the hope of finding lost relatives.
The scandal is an embarrassment for France, a longstanding ally of Chadian President Idriss Deby.
"There are several problems with this association: why did they act illegally, and with what motive?" French President Nicolas Sarkozy said.
He later spoke to Deby by phone and asked for two French journalists being held along with the other French nationals to be released.
"He asked him for the journalists being held in Abeche to be freed as quickly as possible, while respecting Chad's laws," Sarkozy's spokesman said in a statement. "President Deby indicated he would do everything possible to free them."
The statement did not mention the other French nationals.
No Impact on EU Force
Chadian authorities have charged all the French nationals with abduction and fraud, meaning they could face five to 20 years hard labor if convicted.
Seven Spanish crew members of the plane chartered for the operation were charged as accessories, along with two Chadians, local officials from the border town of Tine, north of Abeche.
France has troops stationed in Chad and will provide roughly half of a European Union peacekeeping force of up to 3,000 soldiers to be deployed in the east in the coming weeks to protect Sudanese and Chadian refugees there.
"This failed attempt at kidnapping children will have no impact on the deployment of European forces in eastern Chad," Communication Minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor said, dismissing speculation in French political and media circles that Chad might be seeking an excuse to block the EU mission.
Portugal, which currently holds the EU presidency, said the case involved an isolated private non-government organization.
"We have a very important strategic agenda to pursue and we cannot afford to be derailed by this incident," Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado said in Ghana at an EU-African Union meeting to prepare for a Europe-Africa summit in December.
The Red Cross, U.N. children's agency UNICEF and refugee agency UNHCR have been interviewing the children to try to establish their identities.
"We will have to go to the villages where they claim they come from, see their parents, or who they claim are their parents, and do this work. It will take time," Serge Male, the head of UNHCR in Chad, told Reuters.
Feeds