French 'wanted kids' organs'

2007-11-19 14:10

Khartoum - A top official in Sudan's main ruling National Congress Party said on Monday that a French charity's attempt to fly out more than 100 African children was perhaps a cover for organ trafficking.

Nafie Ali Nafie, number two of the NCP, said: "The question is why these children were being taken to the West? Perhaps to provide organs such as hearts and kidneys to elderly patients."

"Other than that, the affair underscores a decline in moral values of those who falsely pretend to defend human rights," added the vice-president of the NCP, which was led by Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir.

"I cannot believe France did not know," said Nafie, despite denials from the French authorities.

Six French members of charity Zoe's Ark and four Sudanese officials were being held in Chad, pending an investigation into alleged child abduction that had been vigorously denounced by Sudan.

Zoe's Ark said the children were orphans from Sudan's war-torn Darfur who it planned to place in foster care with families in Europe.

But Chad said the group did not have permission to take the children out of the country, and aid agencies had since said most were Chadian with at least one living parent.

- AFP