NGOs, governments and activists all over the world have taken up the plight of the hundreds of thousands of people killed or displaced by the conflict in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. A French charity group decided that the international community isn't moving fast enough on resolving the conflict, and children are dying. Their solution? Evacuate them. In the summer of 2007, the Arche de Zoé--“Zoe’s Ark”--launched an operation to bring a thousand orphans from Darfur to France to be taken in by host families, and evenutally adopted as French children.

In July, 2007, I met some potential host families. This piece looks at preparations for what an organizer calls "a crazy project".

Listen [12:03]:

On October 25, 2007, authorities in Chad stopped members of the Arche de Zoé with 103 children who were headed towards an airplane chartered to fly to France. The organization was accused of kidnapping.

On November 1, I spoke to The State We're In about this story. Click here to listen to the interview. On November 5 I answered listener questions on this story on RFI's Appels sur l'actualité. Click here to listen to that (in French).

Six members of the Arche de Zoé were put on trial and sentenced by a Chadian judge to serve eight years of prison with hard labor. Because of an agreement between France and Chad, they were repatriated to serve out the sentences in France.

A French judge held a hearing on January 14, 2008, to decide on how to convert the sentence (there is no such thing as hard labor in France). On January 28, the judge handed down his decision: 8 years of prison in France for all six.

Listen to my report on the French hearing [4:28]:

Listen to my report on the verdict [3:19]:

Four of the six face additional charges and a trial in France, for attempting to facilitate illegal adoptions and for fraud.