All six French aid workers convicted in a mass kidnapping in Chad have been freed in France, hours after the Chadian president formally pardoned the group March 31.

The six, from a charity called Zoe's Ark, had tried to spirit 103 children to France in October, claiming they were orphans from Sudan's Darfur region. However, an investigation showed that the children were Chadian, and that most had at least one parent or a close adult relative.

The case of the aid workers had inflamed anti-French sentiment in Chad, but President Idriss Deby raised hopes for the six after French support helped him ward off a rebel attack on his capital in February. Days later, on Feb. 7, he said he was "ready to pardon."