A French national embroiled in a custody battle with his ex-lover over their children has appealed to the French and Namibian authorities to enact laws which will give unmarried parents equal custody rights.

Billal Jaouadi (40), who is desperately trying to get custody of his two children after a fall-out with his ex-lover, Milka Manasse (33), is currently on a month-long visit to Namibia. He arrived with his own mother to see the children and sort out the custody issue, but it seems they have already realised that their efforts would be in vain. The children are currently living with their mother in Ongwediva and Jaouadi is only allowed to be with them at Bennie’s Recreation and Entertainment Park until 9 June when he must leave for France without them.
“I am very much devastated by this unfortunate si-tuation, because I prefer to live with my children in France or alternatively in Namibia if I can be granted the legal status to work and live in this country. All that I need is to live closer to my children,” he told Informanté.
Narrating the back-ground to the conflict, Jaouadi said that on 28 August 2010 he received a text message from Manasse, who is a Namibian citizen, saying: “Forget about your kids. We are no longer coming back to France.”   This was the same day Manasse and the children were supposed to have returned to France after visiting Namibia. Disgruntled by the uncompromising attitude of Manasse, Jaouadi solicited the services of a lawyer, but was later advised to abandon the case, because he was apparently fighting a losing battle. There was no legal back-up for his claim to custody in Namibia. Acting out of desperation, the Frenchman went out of his way, travelling 500 km from his hometown of Lyon to the Elysee palace in Paris where he wanted to see the former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Although he did not meet Sarkozy himself, he was able to meet top officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs. Jaouadi also took his case to the Namibian Embassy in Paris.
Manasse confirmed that she is the mother of 10-year old, Wail-Tulonga, and 8-year old, Tesmine-Ndahafa and that their father is Jaouadi. “I just decided to return to Namibia and leave him there. Now he wants to take the children with him which is not possible, because they are still young, “she briefly responded.