UN Radio

UN and Africa
Programme Number: 134
Week of: Sunday, 7th January, 2007
Recording Date: Thursday, 11th January, 2006
Topical Issue(s):

• The conflict in Somalia between the government and the Islamic Courts took a new turn this week when United States carried out air strikes on villages in the southern part of the country. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed concern about the strikes and appealed for the withdrawal of foreign troops and the resumption of peace talks.

• South Sudan this week celebrated the second anniversary of the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The spokesman for the World Food Programme, Simon Crittle says the agency is planning to focus on the long-term rebuilding of the economy in this semi-autonomous region.

• The crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan has spilled over to Chad where thousands of Sudanese refugees are sheltering after fleeing attacks in their own country. The spokeswoman of the UN refugee agency, Jennifer Pagonis, says that more than 100,000 Chadians have been displaced in eastern Chad.

Producer/presenter: Derrick Mbatha
Editor/co-producer: Ransford Cline-Thomas
Production Assistants: Charles Appel
Studio Engineer: Zach Pruwitt
Duration: 15’00”

RESENTER: This is United Nations Radio in New York.

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PRESENTER:

Hello and welcome to UN and Africa, I’m Derrick Mbatha.

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PRESENTER:

In today’s programme, the United Nations Secretary-General expresses concern about the escalating crisis in Somalia following air strikes by United States forces on villages in the southern part of the country.
CLIP 1: MICHELLE MONTAS

“The Secretary -General believes that it is in the best interest of all to avoid escalation and go back to a politically negotiated process, in line with Security Council resolution 1715. He believes that all foreign troops should withdraw and peace negotiations resume quickly.”

PRESENTER:

That was United Nations spokeswoman Michele Montas. You will hear more from in a moment. Also in this programme, South Sudan celebrates the second anniversary of the peace agreement which ended over twenty years of war. The spokesman for the World Food Programme Simon Crittle talks about what his agency is doing to help that region stand on its feet.
CLIP 2: SIMON CRITTLE

“In 2007, WFP is really moving away from what we would call an emergency style operation and what we are moving towards is more of a development-style operation where people get food in return for helping to build say a local school or a local bridge. And it helps develop the country.”

And later, we look at the crisis of internally displaced people in eastern Chad.
So, stay tuned to UN and Africa.

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PRESENTER:
PRESENTER:

The crisis in Somalia has taken another turn with air strikes by the United States. The latest strike was carried out on villages of Badade and Afmadow districts in southern Somalia on Wednesday, as the Security Council was preparing to discuss the issue of Somalia. Ransford Cline- Thomas reports.
NARRATOR:
The United States has denied that it carried out the air strikes on villages in southern Somalia on Wednesday. Regarding the Monday attacks, it says they were targeted at Al-Qaeda operatives among members of the Islamic Courts who have fled to the border area between Somalia and Kenya. The Islamists fled to that region after they were driven off by the Somali interim government forces supported by Ethiopian troops. Several people were reportedly killed in the Monday attack. The United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon has expressed concern about the air strikes, as we hear from United Nations spokeswoman Michele Montas.
CUT 1: MICHELE MONTAS
Notwithstanding the motives for this reported military action, the Secretary-General is concerned about the new dimension this kind of action could introduce to the conflict and the possible escalation of hostilities that may result. He is also concerned about the impact this will have on the civilian population in southern Somalia and regrets the reported loss of civilian lives.

NARRATOR:

Ms. Montas says the Secretary-General is following the situation in Somalia closely and notes that the Transitional Government has welcomed the involvement of both Ethiopia and the United States in the conflict.
CUT 2: MICHELE MONTAS
The Secretary-General believes that it is in the best interest of all to avoid escalation and go back to a politically negotiated process, in line with Security Council resolution 1715. He reiterates his appeal for all international actors to help Somalia reach stability and peace. He believes that all foreign troops should withdraw and peace negotiations resume quickly.

NARRATOR:
Among the international actors who are willing to help resolve the crisis in Somalia are the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). IGAD is the grouping of countries in the Horn of Africa. The Foreign Minister of South Africa, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma says these organizations are ready to help in Somalia while stressing that the Security Council has the responsibility for international collective security.
CUT 3: DR. DLAMINI ZUMA
So whatever the AU can do in the short term it is doing it because we have been ready, we have been asking the United Nations for a long time to actually allow the Ugandans and other forces to go and assist in Somalia. The AU, together with IGAD took a decision long time ago to send troops from Uganda and I think from Sudan at the time and that is what we are already for.

NARRATOR:

The South African Foreign Minister has stressed the urgency of providing assistance to Somalia.
CUT 4: DR. DLAMINI ZUMA
And we know that the UN takes a long time. Even if it were to take a decision today it will be a long time. We will be well into the middle o the year before they can do anything. So our view is that we must expedite the deployment of those who are ready now and the Security Council, the UN can give them support. They can give them resources to be able to undertake that mandate. We have no problem with that. But we think the deployment should happen with some speed.

NARRATOR:

Meanwhile, Somalis who have fled to the area along the border between Somalia and Kenya have not received assistance since the fighting broke out in December. The United Nations is sending an assessment team to that area to look into the possibility of re-starting humanitarian deliveries into Somalia. United Nations spokeswoman Michelle Montas.
CUT 5: MICHELE MONTAS
Humanitarian operations were suspended in that area and international staff was evacuated when the recent fighting started prior to Christmas. Currently humanitarian operations have not resumed and there are no international humanitarian staffers in that area.

NARRATOR:
In its meeting late on Wednesday, the Security Council expressed concern at the instability and violence across Somalia. It called for more humanitarian assistance to the Somalis and reiterated its support for the creation of an African protection and training mission to Somalia. Reporting for UN Radio, I Ransford Cline-Thomas.

STING/JINGLE: UN AND AFRICA THEME
PRESENTER:

Early this week South Sudan celebrated the second anniversary of the signing of the peace accord that ended more than twenty one years of war between government and rebel forces. The World Food Programme has been providing emergency food assistance to the people who are returning to their homes in this region. I spoke on the line to the town of Juba, the capital of South Sudan with agency’s spokesman Simon Crittle, who detailed what WFP is doing to help rebuild South Sudan.
CRITTLE: At this point in time we are feeding up to a million people every month in Southern Sudan, who cannot provide enough food themselves because the country has largely been destroyed because of that very long war.

MBATHA: How would you describe the humanitarian situation in that region? You say that you are continuing to provide food to a million of people in South Sudan. Is the situation still bad as bad as it was?

CRITTLE: There are hundreds of thousands of Sudanese who were basically forced off their land and their farms during the war and many of those people are now starting to return. The situation is still very grave. There is very little infrastructure in Sudan. Much of the country was destroyed during the war and there are a few hospitals and schools and that kind of things. So it’ s very difficult for these people when they are coming back to sort of re-start their lives.

MBATHA: And what is being done to improve the infrastructure? You say there are still no roads, schools or hospitals.

MBATHA: What the World Food Programme has been doing has actually been building roads. And in the last couple of years we have built 1,850 kilometres of roads. Now this is for two reasons. This is so that we can bring in food aid more efficiently rather than dropping them from the sky, which is very expensive to do. And also it lays a lasting legacy for the people. When you have roads you can increase trade not only trade and you cannot only trade within the country, you can do it with surrounding neighbouring countries. For example, we have opened one road between Uganda and Southern Sudan. And suddenly you see markets springing up along the road. That road goes into Juba and the town of Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan is really thriving largely because of that road.

MBATHA: Now you say that you are involved in building roads. How are you doing this? Are you employing local people?

CRITTLE: What we do is we employ big contracting companies like the German Organization, GTZ, who have the know how and also they can bring in very heavy equipment which is needed. Once they get into Sudan, they can then employ local people to do the actual work. And there are several thousand Southern Sudanese people employed, actually helping to build those roads and one of the main jobs that they are doing is they are de-mining. There are a lot of unexploded mines which still litter the roads, making it a very very dangerous place to travel around. So those people are being employed. They are being trained how to do this de-mining work. And it is providing them with skills and also obviously with an income.

MBATHA: Yes, I wanted to ask about mines. How serious is that problem of land mines?

CRITTLE: It is huge problem. I mean wherever there was fighting, wherever there was front lines between the rebel forces in the South and the government forces from the north, you got mine fields. And many of those mines are still there. Maps of where those mines were laid out have been lost. And it is very dangerous to travel the roads. You have to be extremely careful. You cannot pull off to the side of the roads for fear of driving on to one of these things. Some of them are anti-tank mines which are extremely dangerous.

MBATHA: Getting back to providing food to people. As you know, of course, providing food assistance to is very crucial to save people’s lives. At the same time it can create a situation of dependency, meaning that people are simply dependent on relief assistance. What is being done to address this concern?

CRITTLE: You are absolutely right. There is a very real danger of creating dependency. So, in 2007, WFP is really moving away from what we would call an emergency style operation where we generally give out food in big general food distributions. And what we are moving towards is more of a development-style operation where we don’t just give out food. We give food for certain reasons. For example, we have a great programme called ‘Food-for-Education where, if a child comes to school they get fed. We also have food for training, and we have things like food for work where people get food in return for helping to build a local school or a local bridge. And it helps develop the country.

PRESENTER:

That was Simon Crittle, the spokesman for the World Food Programme in South Sudan.

STING/JINGLE: UN AND AFRICA THEME
PRESENTER:

The crisis in the western Darfur region of Sudan has spilled over to neighbouring Chad. More than two hundred thousand Sudanese refugees from Darfur are now sheltering in eastern Chad. UN Radio’s Diane Bailey reports.
NARRATOR:
In addition to the hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees who have fled to Chad to escape violence in Darfur to Chad, more than 100,000 Chadians have been displaced within their own country. Just within the last three weeks, twenty thousand of these Chadians have been forced to flee their homes. Jennifer Pagonis is the spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency.
CUT 1: JENNIFER PAGONIS
There has been a decrease in the fighting between the Chadian army and opposition forces but the inter-communal conflict which is mainly in the south-east of the country near the border with Sudan’s Darfur region is continuing onwards. More than 10,000 Chadians have been driven from their homes in cross border attacks by alleged Janjaweed militias in the Borota region.

NARRATOR:

Ms. Pagonis points out that another ten thousand Chadians forced to flee from more than twenty villages are now gathered in the town of Gassire. She warns that insecurity for the displaced Chadians is posing a threat to refugee camps housing thousands of Sudanese refugees from Darfur.
CUT 2: JENNIFER PAGONIS
I was in Chad with the High Commissioner on the 22nd of December and we visited these areas in the east of Chad, areas that had been burnt just six days earlier and an IDP camp called Habila, which is in the Kuku Angorana (sic) region. So the IDPs are grouped in different areas, they have sort of fled to different areas. Mainly they are near where some of their villages have been burnt. In one of these areas some have even fled to a refugee camp to seek shelter outside or near the compound of the refugee camp.

NARRATOR:

The insecurity in eastern Chad makes helping the internally displaced people extremely difficult.
CUT 3: JENNIFER PAGONIS
It is very difficult to work there. So we are trying, with other humanitarian agencies, to make sure that they have got food, make sure that they have got shelter. In Habila, something like 83 homes, this is the IDP site, 83 of their homes have been burnt to the ground in the attacks.

NARRATOR:

Monitoring where the attacks happen is another challenge for UNHCR.
CUT 4: JENNIFER PAGONIS
The attacks seem to be continuing in the south east of the country. It takes a little while for the news to trickle through to us because they happen in remote areas because we are not spread out in these remote areas. We generally hear news as these people start to move in the areas where we or our partners are operating.

NARRATOR:
Jennifer Pagonis, the spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency. Ms Pagonis noted that Chadian President Idris Derby Itno has said that the government will send troops to restore security in eastern Chad. The government has also made available approximately eight million dollars to help the internally displaced people in Chad. Reporting for UN and Africa, I am Diane Bailey.
PRESENTER:
And that’s all for this edition of UN and Africa. Our Production Assistant was Charles Appel and our sound engineer was Zach Pruitt. And, now from me Derrick Mbatha, bye for now.

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