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00:00:00Zoe's Ark to watch on
00:00:02France 24.
00:00:07Welcome to this new news report, here are the headlines of your
00:00:10night edition. The President of Colombia officially
00:00:14invested Abellardo de la Espria. She took an oath more than a
00:00:17month after her narrow victory against the left-wing candidate. This
00:00:21new figure of the far right promises to
00:00:25this Chadian subsidiary of build giant prisons, to bomb drug traffickers and to reduce state
00:00:28services.
00:00:30has suffered in recent months from attacks by The conflict continues between
00:00:33Spain and Italy after the crisis in Ceuta and Rome's reaction, which implemented
00:00:37passenger controls on arrivals from the Iberian Peninsula.
00:00:41Madrid, in turn, imposes controls on travelers coming
00:00:43from Italy.
00:00:46And then Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey sign a
00:00:50mutual defense pact. Any armed attack
00:00:53against one of these countries will be considered an attack against all,
00:00:56a warning for Iran and the United States. The look of... attention
00:01:00in the region has accelerated the project.
00:01:03United States has with the countries in
00:01:14The far right has therefore taken the reins of power in Colombia. The new president
00:01:18took office in Cali, in the heart of a city marked by attacks
00:01:22claimed by guerrillas, a symbol for someone who openly threatens the
00:01:27a NATO member, also seeks to peace process initiated by his predecessor, Loik Chalavon.
00:01:32From the King of Spain, Felipe VI, to the Argentine President, Javier
00:01:35Milei, and even the head of FIFA, Gianni
00:01:38Secretary of State for Human and dedication. The association Infantino, they were all gathered this Friday in Cali for
00:01:41the inauguration of the new Colombian
00:01:43president.
00:01:50Normally, the inauguration of a Colombian president takes place in the capital Bogota,
00:01:54but not with Abellardo de la Espria. The 48-year-old millionaire
00:01:57lawyer, a political novice, chose Cali, the third largest city in the country, where
00:02:01attacks recently took place. The city is guarded by
00:02:04more than 11,000 soldiers, a symbol, because the new far-right president
00:02:08promises a strong approach to fight against armed groups and drug
00:02:11trafficking. A program completely different from that of his left-wing
00:02:15predecessor Gustavo Petro, absent from the ceremony, who had tried to negotiate
00:02:19the disarmament of the guerrillas. There
00:02:22orphans. The Zoe's Ark will be no false peace process, the only possible peace is that imposed by
00:02:25arms. Any bandit who does not submit will be eliminated. I warned
00:02:29you. For this, Colombia can count on the support of the
00:02:33United States and Israel, whose
00:02:36it was representatives were present at the inauguration ceremony. The rise to power of Abellardo de la Espriea
00:02:40shifts Latin America even further to the right, engaged in an
00:02:45the dissolution of the anti-drug war led by Donald Trump. The American president promised excellent relations between
00:02:48Bogota and Washington after the deep tensions under the Petro
00:02:52government. Spain is implementing controls on
00:02:56travelers arriving from Italy. These measures concern flights and boats.
00:03:00victims, victims of Zoe's Madrid's decision was taken in response to similar measures
00:03:03decreed by Italy after the influx of migrants into the enclave of
00:03:06Ceuta. Louis
00:03:07Chalavon.
00:03:11In front of this police station, there are dozens of unaccompanied minors waiting
00:03:15their turn to be identified and placed in a
00:03:18reception center. These young adolescents have been living on the streets for several
00:03:22days, in more than
00:03:24precarious conditions.
00:03:26They ate, washed themselves as best they could, and asked people for help.
00:03:30Some gave them €1, others bread. That's how they get
00:03:34by day by day. It is
00:03:36estimated that more than 1,100 unaccompanied minors are
00:03:39in Ceuta. Local authorities are doing everything possible to take care of
00:03:43these minors and manage the approximately 2,000 migrants who are still in
00:03:46the enclave, according to figures from the Spanish Ministry of Interior.
00:03:50On the diplomatic front, the war of words continues between Spain and
00:03:53Italy. Madrid threatens to apply retaliatory measures against
00:03:58what the association's members claimed Rome if Italy does not reverse its decision to suspend the free movement with Spain before
00:04:01Sunday. On July 31st, Italian Prime Minister
00:04:05Giorgia Meloni announced the strengthening of controls at land
00:04:09we simply want to spark that little spark that will provoke a debate and hopefully open a big international debate on the subject, but in 2008 on the set of borders. We call on the Italian government to
00:04:12reconsider its position, to end controls and to treat
00:04:15Spaniards like other European citizens. If it does not
00:04:19do so by the end of Sunday, August 9th, Spain
00:04:24reduce state will be forced to adopt proportional measures to protect the interests and dignity of its
00:04:28citizens. Italy says it does not want to give in to any
00:04:32ultimatum. In a statement, the Italian government
00:04:35indicates that it is maintaining the suspension of the Schengen agreement with Spain
00:04:39at least until August
00:04:40He doesn't seem to realize that he 15th. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey
00:04:44have signed a defense pact. The agreement aims to strengthen
00:04:47military deterrence in a context of renewed
00:04:50regional tension (explanations from Alice
00:04:53Broga).
00:04:56To seal their alliance, they chose Mecca, side by
00:04:59side. The leaders of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and
00:05:02Pakistan attend Friday prayers at the Grand Mosque. Three Sunni
00:05:05regional powers that share
00:05:09maritime or land borders with Iran.
00:05:13Perceived as a threat, so Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin
00:05:16Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Pakistani
00:05:20Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed a defense
00:05:24pact on Friday. The agreement aims to strengthen collective
00:05:27deterrence against any act of aggression and stipulates that any
00:05:30armed attack against one of the three states will be considered an attack
00:05:34against all. A mechanism whose solidity could
00:05:37be tested very quickly by Saudi Arabia. The kingdom
00:05:43Iran and its proxies, such as the Houthis in Yemen, who have recently
00:05:46multiplied strikes against Saudi targets. Riyadh,
00:05:50Ankara and Islamabad, who have been involved in recent weeks to try to
00:05:54resolve the conflict between the United States and Iran, are also
00:05:57seeking to diversify their defense in the face of an American
00:06:01partner deemed increasingly unreliable.
00:06:05The other factor is distrust of American security guarantees.
00:06:08It must be clear, it is not an alternative to the
00:06:12security relationship that the
00:06:16the region, but a complement. Indeed, while the
00:06:19United States remains indispensable for many regional
00:06:22actors. They are also perceived as unreliable and
00:06:25unpredictable.
00:06:28If Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are already linked by a defense
00:06:31agreement, the inclusion of Turkey in this new pact was
00:06:35precipitated by the war in the Middle East. Turkey,
00:06:39gain influence and attract investors.
00:06:45Will Volodymyr Zelensky's latest trip be considered
00:06:49an affront to Russia? The Ukrainian president is in Serbia
00:06:53for the first time since coming to power. It must be said that Belgrade has
00:06:56never aligned itself with European sanctions against Moscow. For
00:07:00Serbia, this visit is also a way to send a signal to the Baltic
00:07:03countries, which are freezing their EU accession process due to its
00:07:07relations with Russia, but also to reassure European states that
00:07:11are concerned about the decline of democracy in the country.
00:07:13pays.
00:07:17Taiwan has been conducting military exercises since Wednesday to simulate a
00:07:20Chinese invasion. These exercises, which last 10 days, were held at
00:07:24Bal Reel on a beach on Kinmen Island, just
00:07:276 km from the shores of China. Our correspondent
00:07:31Suzanne Duroi de Sudirot went there.
00:07:33place.
00:07:42What you just heard is the Taiwanese army training
00:07:45for a scenario of invasion by the Chinese
00:07:48army on this small island of Kinmen. This Taiwanese
00:07:52territory is located only 6 km from China and here you
00:07:56can see on the shores Taiwanese tanks
00:07:59practicing live fire. They will aim at
00:08:03targets that are there in the background in the sea as you
00:08:06can see. So, Kinmen, like the rest of the country, is training, these are national
00:08:10military exercises. And
00:08:13Kinmen in particular is exposed
00:08:17to China due to its proximity. It had already been the subject
00:08:21of an attempted landing in 1949. So
00:08:25today, could China invade this small
00:08:28territory again? The strategic and military stake is
00:08:31colossal and ultimately, perhaps strategists
00:08:34believe that directly invading the main island of
00:08:37Taiwan is perhaps much more pertinent for
00:08:40China. Forecasters announce a new heatwave in
00:08:44France. 12 departments are on orange alert this
00:08:47Saturday. Heatwaves are occurring at an unprecedented
00:08:51rate in France and also in parts of Europe. Repeated
00:08:55heatwaves, persistent drought,
00:08:57Austria, Croatia and Slovakia, temperatures have exceeded 41 degrees.
00:09:0141°anaji.
00:09:06With the drought and repeated heatwaves, the waters
00:09:09of the Danube are experiencing...
00:09:42during the day, it's very restrictive.
00:09:46Slovakia and neighboring Austria recorded absolute temperature
00:09:50records this week, more than 41 degrees in some
00:09:53places. After a particularly hot and
00:09:56dry July, residents and shopkeepers fear a scorching
00:09:59August, as the drought is
00:10:03widespread and the concrete shopping streets are
00:10:06shunned by tourists and the few passers-by.
00:10:09passants.
00:10:12I have a doctor's appointment, that's why we are outside, otherwise with this
00:10:16weather I would have stayed at home with my
00:10:18child.
00:10:21In Croatia, they chose to shelter in nature.
00:10:56A word on cycling now, this Friday, the 7th stage of the Tour de France
00:10:59had an appointment with Mont Ventoux. The Polish
00:11:02Kasia Niewiadoma took the yellow jersey after
00:11:05winning solo with a 15-second lead over the
00:11:09Dutch Demi Vollering and a 39-second lead over the Swiss
00:11:13Marlen Reusser. The French Cédrine Kerbaol finished
00:11:167th at 4 minutes, and is 6th in the general
00:11:20classification. Disappointment, however, for Pauline Ferrand-Prévot
00:11:24at more than... 10 minutes, 18th at the finish
00:11:27and 14th in the general
00:11:28classification.
00:11:32That's the end of this news report, we'll be back in just over 15 minutes, the information
00:11:36continues on France 24 and France Info, see you soon.
00:11:59Its slogan was courage
00:12:03Zoe's Ark was created to help orphaned
00:12:06children. Yet, it will be remembered mainly for a
00:12:10resounding scandal, an attempted abduction
00:12:13of African children. In 2007, the association launched a
00:12:17campaign to evacuate 10,000 orphans from the war-torn Darfur
00:12:20region in Sudan, to place them in foster families in
00:12:24France. But on October 25, six members including the
00:12:27founder of Zoe's Ark, Eric Breteau, and his partner, Emilie
00:12:31Lelouch, were arrested in Chad as they were about to put
00:12:34103 children on a plane, presented as originating from
00:12:38Darfur. Except that most of these
00:12:41minors were actually Chadian and many of them were not
00:12:47team was accused of attempted abduction and
00:12:50sentenced by the Chadian justice system to 8 years of hard
00:12:53labor. Taken to France, they were finally pardoned
00:12:57by the Chadian president and still proclaim their
00:13:00innocence. But the French justice system, in turn, opened
00:13:03a trial and in 2013 sentenced Breteau and Lelouch to 2 years in
00:13:07prison with a suspended sentence and ordered
00:13:10association. Nearly 20 years after the events, what has become of the
00:13:13main protagonists of this case? The victims and their
00:13:17families are still waiting for the compensation ordered by
00:13:20the court. Bill's report on Zoe's Ark is a report by Arol.
00:13:39In total, we were 103
00:13:43Ark. We come from different
00:13:46backgrounds. There are victims who come from
00:13:49Biltin.
00:13:52biltin,
00:13:55Almost all the children concerned are today in towns in eastern
00:13:58Chad, less than 10% live in the
00:14:01capital.
00:14:06Adam is Chadian, he is 23 years old, he was 5 when
00:14:09the Zoe's Ark association wanted to send him to France with
00:14:12102 other children. He was supposed to be welcomed by French
00:14:16families who thought they were taking care of orphans from the Darfur
00:14:20region of Sudan. This is
00:14:23at the time.
00:14:27"We even created a WhatsApp group, I'm the representative in the
00:14:30capital, so I have to go back and forth to the east of the country like
00:14:34today, it's exhausting but I'm holding
00:14:36on.
00:14:39Good evening, how
00:14:40are you?
00:14:46Here, Adam is eagerly awaited, because he
00:14:50is the one who has been fighting for years for the victims of Zoe's Ark to be
00:14:54compensated as the Chadian justice system decided in
00:14:572007.
00:15:04That day, he gathered several parents to explain to them where his efforts
00:15:08stood.
00:15:16The court had clearly specified that for the child to be entitled to damages,
00:15:20they had to be 18 years old. Time has
00:15:23passed, we are now of age, we are adults
00:15:26today. The events took place 18 years ago,
00:15:30but this father of a child who almost got taken to France, remembers
00:15:34it as if it were yesterday. It was
00:15:37only after Eid and the end of Ramadan that we were told that our
00:15:40children had been stolen and taken
00:15:42to Abeche. We immediately came here to
00:15:45Adré and found their luggage on the ground.
00:15:49For 3-4 days we searched for our children everywhere, I don't even know if
00:15:53we ate, we didn't stop for a minute. We
00:15:57finally went to Abeche and that's where we found our children in
00:16:00Madame's house, it's an
00:16:02orphanage.
00:16:06This other father, he...
00:16:37would be like this for 5 years, we were
00:16:40happy.
00:16:44All the parents we met affirm that at the time, the association promised
00:16:48them that the children would benefit from religious education, a
00:16:51strong argument in this conservative Muslim region of Chad.
00:17:08At the time, Zoe's Ark association gathered Adam and other
00:17:12children in this building in the city center of Adré, transformed into
00:17:15a boarding school in 2007. Today, Adam does not remember
00:17:19having passed through here. It is Ibrahim Oubali, the father of another
00:17:22child victim met on his arrival, who takes
00:17:25him there.
00:17:29You see this wall, it didn't exist before.
00:17:33This one too, they added it. They've changed almost everything
00:17:35here. This is the school where all the children
00:17:39taken in by Zoe's Ark were gathered. They were all
00:17:42here and from there they were taken to Adré airport
00:17:46to then be taken to Abéché.
00:17:49That's what we said to ourselves, it's in the city center, in plain sight of
00:17:53everyone, we never suspected for a second that this story
00:17:56would end like this. The authorities knew about this
00:17:59place, it wasn't a hidden project. We thought it
00:18:03was a real school. People who didn't know our story
00:18:06talked a lot. They said: "You sold your
00:18:09children," but who sells their child? It's because
00:18:13we were promised an education that we
00:18:15accepted.
00:18:24At the trial of the members of Zoe's Ark in Chad, one of the Chadian
00:18:27intermediaries of the association, responsible for spotting and then bringing the
00:18:31children to its premises, confessed to having passed off some sixty
00:18:34Chadian minors as Sudanese orphans from Darfur.
00:18:38But what is the explanation for the other children? According to the list drawn up
00:18:42by the Chadian state, which we were able to consult, only 5
00:18:46of the 103 children concerned by the case were indeed
00:18:49of Sudanese origin. The founder of Zoe's Ark, Eric
00:18:53Breteau, assures that he did not know that the vast
00:18:56majority of the children were Chadian and that he did not know
00:18:59either that many were not orphans. He also claims
00:19:02not to have wanted to have these children adopted, that he simply
00:19:05wanted to evacuate them to France to force Paris to address the Darfur
00:19:09problem. This is what he explains in this video
00:19:13produced by his association a few months before his
00:19:16arrest. The fact of evacuating children from Darfur to
00:19:20our country is to import part of the problem into our country, so it
00:19:23obliges the political world to react to that and it
00:19:27obliges the political world to react to French public
00:19:30opinion. That's what we're trying to do, we have no
00:19:33claim to be changing the world, we're not idealists.
00:19:46the show "On n'est pas couché" on France 2, Eric Breteau
00:19:50admits that he did not tell the whole truth. No, but the people who entrusted you with the
00:19:53children, they knew they were going to France, yes or no? Yes or no? No, it's
00:19:57clandestine.
00:20:03solicited, did not wish to answer our questions, but thanks
00:20:07to Adam, we meet Hamza, one of the child
00:20:10victims of Zoe's Ark who says he has exchanged messages with the
00:20:14association's founder.
00:20:17discussed with the main person involved in this
00:20:20case.
00:20:24I spoke with one of the kidnappers. His name is
00:20:27Eric Bret. He seems to think that their operation was
00:20:31normal and that they came to help us. For them, they didn't kidnap
00:20:35anyone.
00:20:39Hamza agrees to let us read the messages Eric
00:20:42Breteau sent him: "If the person who brought you to us lied by saying
00:20:46that you were an orphan, I can unfortunately do nothing about it. You probably
00:20:49have a birth certificate and identity documents to explain where you were born
00:20:53and who your parents are. At the time, I didn't have them." For
00:20:57Hamza, Eric Breteau's line of defense is not
00:21:00satisfactory.
00:21:03If the person recognizes their mistakes and asks for
00:21:05forgiveness, then you know they have
00:21:08evolved. But if that same person refuses
00:21:11to admit their wrongs and continues to defend their case by
00:21:15saying "I didn't commit kidnapping, we are telling the
00:21:18truth," then you cannot
00:21:20forgive.
00:21:25Before, when I heard about this story, it made me furious.
00:21:28moi.
00:21:37people who don't want our good. Today, now that I'm
00:21:40grown up, I know that not all white people are
00:21:43the same.
00:22:00So what role did France play in this affair, while several
00:22:04of its nationals were organizing this evacuation operation
00:22:08from Chadian soil? The association even benefited
00:22:10from French military flights to move around inside the country. Another
00:22:14less known element, Eric Broteau and his partner Emilie
00:22:18Lelouch
00:22:20were summoned several months before their arrest in Chad by
00:22:24the office of Rama Yade, their
00:22:28Rights. A man took over the case, Eric
00:22:32Walter, former advisor to Rama Yade. We were able to
00:22:35meet him.
00:22:40Their project was totally illegal from A to Z, of course. Eric Walter
00:22:44explains to us that the French intelligence services had detected an
00:22:48irregular humanitarian activity. Yesterday they reported
00:22:51the information, hence this summons of Eric Breteau and
00:22:55Emilie Lelouch and they both arrive. The meeting is extremely
00:22:58tense. I remember a real,
00:23:02a genuine, latent aggression, not
00:23:05physical, of course, but from them,
00:23:07a lot of tension. In all good faith, we tried
00:23:11to explain to them what they could do and what they could not
00:23:14do. Once again, adoption, they couldn't do that, it was
00:23:17simple.
00:23:21But they never admitted that
00:23:26adoption, and so nothing
00:23:29could deter them
00:23:32or dissuade them from
00:23:36undertaking the action they had begun to undertake. That's what I
00:23:40remember.
00:23:43The French members of Zoe's Ark were sentenced for attempted child
00:23:47abduction by the Chadian justice system to 8 years of hard
00:23:50labor, but also to pay more than 6 million euros to the
00:23:54victims. They were then transferred to France, then
00:23:57pardoned by the Chadian
00:23:59president.
00:24:04The sixty children with whom Adam is in contact have never received
00:24:08compensation. He wants to gather as many testimonies as
00:24:12possible to obtain reparations. That day,
00:24:15Adam meets Abdallah Arbab in his village. His son,
00:24:19Ramadan, is a victim of Zoe's
00:24:20Ark.
00:24:27It was a child theft, a real kidnapping,
00:24:31it's a
00:24:33heard many stories, they would have taken us to exploit
00:24:37us, maybe make us work in factories.
00:24:41We were little, we didn't understand anything.
00:24:44For us, at the time, it was an opportunity
00:24:47for education. In our village, there was no
00:24:52school. It was only for this reason that parents decided to send us to Zoe's
00:24:56Ark. We were just herders and not
00:25:00educated either.
00:25:02Having a chance to go to school was incredible for
00:25:05us.
00:25:10His father has kept dozens of essential documents for
00:25:14Adam's investigation.
00:25:14d'adame,
00:25:18You see, a claim made in
00:25:212011, kept by Mr.
00:25:23Abdallah. They did not receive a response, so they made a new
00:25:27request in 2012. They addressed a
00:25:31deputy, but also directly the public
00:25:35prosecutor.
00:25:40spent 13 months in prison at the time, we waited
00:25:44for a response to all these letters. They told us that each child would receive
00:25:486,000 euros in damages. But we were told at the time that to receive
00:25:52the money, the children had to be 18, but for now they have received
00:25:55nothing.
00:26:03The only trace we find of the damages intended for the
00:26:06children is this document which proves that the Chadian state
00:26:10paid in 2009 562 million CFA
00:26:13francs, or about 85,000 euros into an
00:26:17account opened in their name at the Société
00:26:20Générale Tchadienne de Banque. We contacted the
00:26:24Koris group, which took over
00:26:27Société Générale in 2024 to find out if the money was still in
00:26:31this account, but the banking institution did not wish to respond to
00:26:34our interview
00:26:35request.
00:26:42Adam, for his part, turned to one of the lawyers who defended the families
00:26:45of victims in 2007. Today, he is the sole legal
00:26:49representative of the victims and plays the role of intermediary with the Chadian
00:26:53government. We participated from start to finish
00:26:56in triggering the procedure until the decision was
00:27:00reached at the criminal court in N'Djamena. Here, the state is also
00:27:03accountable. uh, at the forefront, uh
00:27:07will indeed not delay paying this amount and for that
00:27:11there is still hope, so we launch a vibrant appeal
00:27:15to the high authorities to commit to quickly
00:27:18settling this this this matter so that at least
00:27:22justice is definitively served to these child
00:27:26victims, thank you , courage
00:27:28, huh,
00:27:30the rest there, okay.
00:27:33While we were filming the last minutes of this
00:27:36report, the Chadian presidency assured the families' lawyer
00:27:40that the compensation process would be relaunched,
00:27:44a hope for Adam and for all the other
00:27:47child victims who, 18 years after the facts, still feel abandoned by justice.
00:28:05Since 2006, in French, English, Arabic, and
00:28:08Spanish, the greatest international figures have
00:28:11trusted us during exclusive interviews, world leaders
00:28:14share their vision of the world,
00:28:18you have 142 countries that have signed the
00:28:21New York Declaration, artists and creators inspire
00:28:24us, intellectuals and
00:28:28innovators shape our future.
00:28:32Great personalities are on France 24,
00:28:36liberty, equality, current affairs.
00:30:06Welcome to this new newscast. Here are the headlines of your night
00:30:09edition. The President of Colombia has officially been
00:30:13sworn in. Abelardo de la Espriella took the oath more than a
00:30:16month after his narrow victory against the left-wing candidate. This
00:30:20new far-right figure promises to build giant prisons, to
00:30:24bomb drug traffickers, and to
00:30:27services.
00:30:30The feud continues
00:30:32between Spain and Italy, after the crisis in Ceuta and Rome's reaction,
00:30:36which implemented passenger controls from the Iberian Peninsula,
00:30:40Madrid in turn imposes controls on travelers
00:30:42coming from Italy.
00:30:45And then Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey
00:30:49sign a mutual defense pact. Any armed
00:30:52attack against one of these countries will be considered an attack
00:30:55against all, a warning for Iran and the United States.