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| Hunger strike by French in Chad | Hunger strike by French in Chad |
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| Six French nationals held in Chad over an alleged attempt to fly 103 children out of the country have gone on hunger strike, a judicial source says. | Six French nationals held in Chad over an alleged attempt to fly 103 children out of the country have gone on hunger strike, a judicial source says. |
| The six members of the Zoe's Ark charity began the strike because of concerns over how the legal process was conducted, the source said. | |
| They also feel they have been let down by the French government. | They also feel they have been let down by the French government. |
| The charity workers are being held in Chad's capital, N'Djamena, on charges of kidnapping and fraud. | The charity workers are being held in Chad's capital, N'Djamena, on charges of kidnapping and fraud. |
| The BBC's Stephanie Hancock confirmed that the strike was going on. It has been reported that the group are refusing food, restricting themselves to water and cigarettes. | |
| They were arrested in October for what Chadian officials say was an illegal attempt to fly 103 children to France. | |
| Zoe's Ark has said it thought the children were orphans from the conflict-torn region of Darfur in neighbouring Sudan. | |
| Stephanie Lefebvre, secretary-general of Zoe's Ark, has insisted the charity was acting out of compassion. | |
| But international humanitarian organisations have said that almost all the children were from Chadian villages in the border area, and have at least one parent or adult guardian, according to the AFP news agency. | |
| Chadian President Idriss Deby has described the operation as "inhumane" and "unacceptable" and said those responsible would be "severely punished". | |
| Money | |
| French government sources told the BBC that some 300 families in Europe may have paid a total of up to 1m euros ($1.4m) to charities in the hope of being able to adopt one of the children arriving from Chad. | |
| Most of these families were French, and the remainder Belgian. | |
| The UN children's agency, Unicef, said the operation "took place in violation of international rules". | |
| In August, the French authorities issued a warning about the activities of Zoe's Ark, saying there was no guarantee that the children whom the group wanted to transport were actually orphans. |