Chad gets tough on NGOs

2007-11-19 09:25

N'Djamena - Chad will conduct preliminary controls on all non-governmental organisations in the country to avoid situations such as the Zoe's Ark charity affair, says its foreign minister.

Foreign Minister Ahmad Allam-Mi said: "Now it is about knowing who is who. It is less a problem with trusting NGOs than one of control: there will be good preliminary checks."

The French charity, Zoe's Ark, tried to fly 103 children out of Chad to Europe last month, causing international outcry after it was revealed that many of the children were neither orphans nor from Darfur as claimed.

Six French members of Zoe's Ark and four Sudanese officials were arrested and remained imprisoned in Chad's capital, N'Djamena.

The affair did "not undermine our trust in NGOs", said the minister, but the government would pay a lot more attention to such groups in future.

"We are planning to take a census to know who is here legitimately and to ask those who are not to put their papers in order," he said, adding that between 150 and 200 NGOs worked within Chad.

There were about 240 000 refugees from the Darfur region in neighbouring Sudan and 180 000 displaced Chadians, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

- AFP