Safety concerns in Chad child row

An angry crowd gathered outside the Abeche courtroom

Sixteen Europeans being held in Chad on child kidnapping and fraud charges are to be moved to the capital as their safety cannot be guaranteed in Abeche.
The group was arrested in the town last week while allegedly trying to smuggle more than 100 children to France.

A tznews correspondent says reporters were briefly shown the prisoners, many appearing distraught and dishevelled.

She says there was no sign of physical maltreatment, but a French man gestured that he had been beaten.

If they are found guilty, the group face between five and 20 years in prison with hard labourer

The charity behind the flight, Zoe's Ark, said it believed the children were orphans from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.

Staff from the UN children's agency Unicef say many of the children, now being kept in an orphanage in Abeche, a town near Chad's border with Darfur, cry at night for their parents and say they are from villages in Chad.