Most of the 103 African children which a French group had planned to fly out of Chad were not orphans as the group had claimed, the United Nations children's agency UNICEF said on Thursday.
A UNICEF spokeswoman in Chad said information derived from interviews with the children carried out by U.N. agencies and the Red Cross contradicted statements by the French group Zoe's Ark which had described them as sick and destitute orphans from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.
"They are not orphans and they were not sitting alone in the desert in Chad, they were living with their families in communities," Annette Rehrl of UNICEF in Chad told Reuters.
Nine French nationals, most of them members of the Zoe's Ark group, were arrested in the eastern Chadian town of Abeche last week after authorities stopped them from flying the children to Europe, saying they had no authorisation.
They have been charged with abduction and fraud and face possible forced labour terms of up to 20 years if convicted.
Seven Spanish crewmembers of the plane chartered by Zoe's Ark, a Belgian pilot and at least two Chadians have also been detained and charged as accessories.
Officials from the U.N. children's agency UNICEF, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been caring for the children, 21 girls and 82 boys aged between one and 10 years, at an Abeche orphanage. They had been asking them about their families and where they came from.
"During interviews with humanitarian staff, 91 children said they had been living with their families consisting of at least one adult they considered to be their parent," the English version of a joint U.N. and Red Cross report said.
