BBC reports on a tense atmosphere in Chad after an attempt by French charity workers to take a group of children to Europe. After Chad's President Idriss Deby arrived in the town of Abeche and met a group of more than 100 African children who were destined to be taken to Europe by a French charity, he let rip. "They treat us like animals," the president said. "Listen to the children. They are crying for their parents. This is incredible! We will do everything to expose this odious crime." The alleged smuggling operation was stopped by Chadian officials almost at the last moment while the children were heading for a plane waiting on the tarmac at Abeche airport. The president's comments were posted on his website and set the tone for a wave of outraged Chadian nationalism which seems bound to poison relations between the former colonial power and its former colony for some time to come. Furious row The affair has also provoked a furious row in France with the parliamentary opposition, and normally sober commentators, saying the French government may have committed serious errors. The French Le Monde newspaper, which is normally well-informed by French diplomatic circles, said the scandal could complicate plans to deploy a French-led European peacekeeping force to the volatile border between Chad and Sudan. The peacekeeping force had been only reluctantly agreed to by Chad, which had been wary of ceding any influence in the border area.

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