Chad news stories on Newser

Youngest Gitmo Detainee, Captured at 14, Goes Free

Harry Kimball — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:26:02 CDT

The youngest detainee at Guantanamo Bay has been freed to his native Chad, Reuters reports. Mohammed El Gharani was seized in Pakistan in 2001 at 14, and accused variously of being an al-Qaeda operative, messenger, and combatant. Five months ago a judge found the evidence against him insufficient. “That it...

Chadian 'Vampire' Dish Gets Blood Boiling ... or Frying

Drew Nelles — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:10:02 CDT

There’s a vampire resurgence in Chad, and no, it’s not because Twilight has swept the African country. Cost-conscious residents have resurrected a dish slyly known as “vampire”: cooked animal blood, the BBC reports. With global food prices soaring and meat increasingly expensive, traditional vampire is “actually an excellent source of...

UN Fights to Release Child Soldiers in Chad

Jason Farago — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 06:11:00 CDT

The UN has obtained access to 80 child soldiers, some as young as 13, who have been taken prisoner in Chad near the Sudanese region of Darfur. UNICEF says that the children were captured and paraded before television cameras after a battle in early May between the Chadian army and...

Scandal! Heartbreak! Clooney Visits Darfur

Jason Farago — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 09:53:01 CST

George Clooney figures prominently in New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof's latest report from Africa, which Kristof describes as "yet another hand-wringing column about Darfur." He offers to swap dirt on the Hollywood heartthrob for readers' interest—then offers a chilling tale of a "petty and mean-spirited" move...

Judge Orders Youngest Gitmo Prisoner Freed

Rob Quinn — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 04:31:25 CST

A judge has ordered the military to release the youngest prisoner ever sent to Guantanamo Bay, reports CNN. The judge ruled that Mohammad el-Gharani, sent to the detention center in 2002 at the age of 14, was not an enemy combatant. El-Gharani's lawyer said his client, a citizen of Chad,...

Sudan Cuts Ties With Chad After Surprise Rebel Attack

Mary Papenfuss — Sun, 11 May 2008 06:12:21 CDT

Sudan today severed ties with Chad, charging that the nation aided hundreds of Darfur rebels who launched a surprise assault on the Khartoum suburb of Omdurman late yesterday. Khartoum and Omdurman were heavily guarded and under curfew after the assault hundreds of miles from rebel bases in the west. Sudanese...

Google Tracking Refugees

Nick McMaster — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 17:45:05 CDT

A new feature allows Google Earth users to take a tour of the world’s refugee hotspots, with images of camps supplemented by information from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the AP reports. The search titan has greatly improved the available resolution in its satellite photos of refugee areas—for...

Chad Pardons, Frees French 'Orphan' Kidnappers

Jason Farago — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:49:28 CDT

The six men imprisoned for kidnapping 103 Chadian children have been pardoned and freed from a French prison, reports the BBC. Convicted in Chad and sentenced to hard labor, the members of charity group Zoe's Ark had been transferred to a facility in France, and received a pardon from Chadian...

Darfur Sees New Cycle of Bloodshed, Refugees

Harry Kimball — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 14:32:00 CST

Darfur may be on a road back to the pitched fighting between rebels, militias and the Sudanese army that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions 5 years ago, prompting the US to call it genocide, the New York Times reports. The Sudanese government recently stepped up operations in the...