UN Radio

UN and Africa
Programme Number: 177
Week of: Sunday, 4th November, 2007
Recording Date: Thursday, 8th November, 2007
Topical Issue(s):

" Efforts to end the crisis in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan are continuing following the first phase which ended in Sirte Libya last week. The spokesman for the United Nations and African Union envoys to Darfur, Ahmad Fawzi says the second phase is now ongoing with a series of workshops both in Sirte and elsewhere.

" Somalis continue to suffer because of fighting between insurgents and Ethiopian troops supporting the transitional federal government in Mogadishu. The flare up of fighting between these forces, nearly a week ago has displaced 90,000 people, many of whom have fled towards the town of Afgooye.

" Sarah Omega Kidangasi is a 31 year old woman from Kenya who was raped at 19, became pregnant, and got fistula after 18 hours of obstructed labor ending with a dead baby. In May, after twelve years with fistula, she had successful surgery. Now she wants to ensure that other women know that treatment is available.

Producer/presenter: Derrick Mbatha
Editor: Ransford Cline-Thomas
Production Assistant: Florence Poblete-Enriquez
Studio Engineer: Zach Pruwit
Duration: 15'00"

PRESENTER: 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, talks to find a lasting solution to the crisis in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan have entered the second phase.

CLIP 1: Ahmed Fawzi
"The process began on Saturday the 27th of October and continues and will continue until a peace agreement is signed."

PRESENTER: You will hear more on that in a moment. Also in this edition, Somalis who have been forced by fighting to flee Mogadishu continue to suffer in makeshift camps for internally displaced people.

CLIP 2: William Spindler
"The UN team on Saturday visited a therapeutic feeding centre with some fifty malnourished children, some of them too weak to cry."

PRESENTER: Also in this programme, a young Kenyan woman talks about the hardship she endured in a hospital as a result of a pregnancy caused by rape.

CLIP 3: Sarah Omega Kidangasi
"After three days of post delivery, I realized that I was leaking urine and that is the time I was told that I had got a fistula"

PRESENTER: You will hear more on that later.

So, stay tuned to UN and Africa.

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Second Phase of Process to Resolve Darfur Crisis Continue

PRESENTER: Efforts to end the crisis in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan continue following the first phase which began in Sirte, Libya almost two weeks ago. The spokesman for the United Nations and African Union mediating team, Ahmad Fawzi, who attended the talks, says the second phase is now ongoing with a series of workshops both in Sirte and elsewhere. Mr. Fawzi told me that the talks had representation at the highest level from neighbouring countries, regional organizations and major world powers.

FAWZI: The process began on Saturday the 27th of October and continues and will continue until a peace agreement is signed. We had seven movements with 27 leading personalities from the movements. Now, it didn't succeed in brining the key leaders to the talks but we are saying that this is a process that's open and we hope that they will join, they will join soon. After the opening the second day, there were two plenaries, very lively debates and speeches and interventions by not only the two parties but civil society. Civil society is playing a very important role in these talks. You have women groups, students, union leaders and other members of civil society and we believe, the envoys believe they should continue to play a very important role. They go back to their constituencies, they talk to their people, they convince their rebel movements and the government to make this process a success. The movements are so fragmented that they do not present a viable negotiating partner to the government of Sudan and we are trying to get them to do that, unify their positions and come up with a single credible delegation to the talks, which is Phase Three in December.

MBATHA: You are making the point that the process has started and there are phases. So phase one is done with. So let's talk about Phase Two.

FAWZI: Phase Two began and we moved seamlessly from Phase One into Phase Two over the last weekend. It will be characterized by a series of workshops both in Sirte and elsewhere. The chief mediators are there. The special envoys have left the talks to the chief mediators to conduct and they are from the AU, Sam Ibok and from the UN Tayé-Brook Zerihoun who is also the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General in Sudan. So these workshops are designed to help the movements prepare their positions on issues that are extremely complex such as wealth sharing, land, compensation, power sharing and governance, security and these workshops should take three to four weeks after which Phase Three should begin.

MBATHA: And that will be when?

FAWZI: We expect, all going well, all being well the first week in December to see Phase Three begin, that is the third of December onwards.

MBATHA: As you are aware the leader of South Sudan, Salva Kir was at Headquarters this week to consult with the Secretary-General and South Sudan, of course, has been playing a role in trying to get the Darfur movements to come up with a common position. What do you expect South Sudan to play now?

FAWZI: Well he came out of his meeting with the Secretary-General and said some very encouraging things about the end of war in Sudan, that there would be no military solution to this conflict. And we hope that he will be able to persuade his partners in Khartoum to respect the ceasefire and to make other commitment as well to the displaced people, and compensation and reconstruction efforts should to hand in hand with this. So, he can play a very important role in persuading the Sudanese government to deliver the goods.

MBATHA: And as you know, of course, closely related to this is the deployment of this hybrid United Nations African Union force in Darfur. When is that expected to take place?

FAWZI: Well it's starting already. It has started and the handover, the official hand over from AMIS, the African Mission in Sudan to UNAMID, the UN Assistance Mission to Darfur should take place on the first of January as planned with or without a peace agreement. But we do hope there will be a peace agreement because it will make life very difficult for the peacekeeper if there was no peace to keep.

PRESENTER: That was Ahmad Fawzi, the spokesman for the joint United Nations-African Union mediation team that is helping to resolve the crisis in Darfur.

STING UN AFRICA THEME MUSIC

Somalis Displaced by Conflict Continue to Live in Hard Conditions

PRESENTER: Somalis continue to suffer because of fighting between insurgents and Ethiopian troops supporting the transitional federal government in Mogadishu. The flare up of fighting between these forces nearly a week ago has displaced approximately 90,000 Somalis, many of whom have fled towards the town of Afgooye west of Mogadishu. UN Radio's Ransford Cline Thomas reports.

NARRATOR: The fighting between the insurgents who were expelled from Mogadishu by the forces of the transitional federal government with the support of Ethiopian troops has forced Somalis to literally live on the road between Mogadishu and Afgooye, while others are hovering around the town to the west of the capital. United Nations agencies sent a team to the small town over the weekend to assess the conditions. Well, they found thousands of newly displaced Somalis living in extremely harsh conditions. UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler says that new makeshift settlements have mushroomed along the road between Mogadishu and Afgooye.

CUT 1: William Spindler
The evaluation mission, which was led by UNHCR, found that in some places, the settlement population had more than doubled, putting further strain on scant resources and facilities around Afgooye. In general, newly displaced families have joined relatives who had fled earlier in the year to Afgooye. Entire families are now crammed into tiny huts.

NARRATOR: Water is being trucked daily to the settlements but supplies cannot meet the increasing demand. William Spindler says there are also concerns about the health and security needs of women and children who are the most vulnerable sections of the population in this crisis situation.

CUT 2: William Spindler
Hygiene remains poor in the crowded settlements raising fears of an outbreak of cholera. There are also concerns about the nutritional status of young children. The UN team on Saturday visited a therapeutic feeding centre with some 50 malnourished children, some of them too weak to cry. Leaders in some of the settlements also reported several cases of rape and called for improved security and protection of the IDPs.

NARRATOR: United Nations and other relief agencies say they are doing the best they can to try to help the displaced people in Somalia. One of these agencies is the World Food Progamme, whose spokesperson is Christiane Berthiaume.

CUT 3: Christiane Berthiaume
We have distributed and we are distributing more than 2,500 tones of food to the new displaced people in Afgooye and around Afgooye. We have done that on 27 spots along the road from Mogadishu to Afgooye.

NARRATOR: One of the problems that aid agencies face as they try to deliver assistance to the needy people of Somalia is piracy. In fact, only this Monday there were reports that pirates freed a Taiwanese vessel and its crew kidnapped almost six months ago off the Coast of Somalia. Again Christiane Berthiaume.

CUT 4: Christiane Berthiaume
We need escorts to bring the food into Somalia. These people that are displaced are displaced on the eastern part of the country and the only way for us to reach those people is by boat. And obviously piracy in the region, it's highly risky to go by boat in this area but this is the only way. We cannot go via Kenya like we do for the south of the country because there is no secure road. So this is our only way.

NARRATOR: Of course, aid agencies can only help alleviate the suffering of the displaced people in this part of the Horn of Africa. The United Nations independent expert on Somalia, Dr. Ghanim Al Najjar sees the root cause of fighting in Mogadishu as what he calls the tribal basis of the Somali government. He also says there is a regional dimension to the crisis in Somalia, pointing out that the Somali opposition is hosted by the Eritrean government while the transitional federal government in Mogadishu is supported by Ethiopian troops. And so what does he propose should be done to deal with this situation?

CUT 5: Dr. Ghanem al-Najjar
I propose that the Security Council takes this matter very seriously and inject some new ideas and the idea is to propose a peacekeeping operation, major one, with human rights component in it and to replace the Ethiopian forces on gradual basis. The new force has to include also some Islamic and Arab countries and I know some already showed an interest to take part in this

NARRATOR: In the meantime, the numbers of Somalis who are being forced by the conflict to flee their homes continues to rise. The United Nations refugee agency estimates that more than 800,000 have been displaced by the fighting. Reporting for UN Radio, I am Ransford Cline-Thomas.

STING UN AFRICA THEME MUSIC

Young Kenyan Woman Campaigns for Women to Get Treatment for Fistula

PRESENTER: Fistula is a childbirth injury that is usually caused by several days of obstructed labour without timely medical intervention to relieve the pressure. The baby usually dies and the woman is left with chronic inability to control movements of the bowels or bladder or both. That condition often brings the pain of being abandoned by a husband and family and shunned by the community. Sarah Omega Kidangasi from Kenya knows that first hand. One of nine children and an orphan since age eleven, she was hospitalized for depression this year. In May, after twelve years with fistula, she had successful surgery and now wants to ensure that women know that treatment is available. UN Radio's Bissera Kostova, picks up the story with this courageous Kenyan woman.

KOSTOVA: Can you tell me about your own experience that prompted you to become an advocate?

KIDANGASI: In 1995 I was raped. The rape was my first experience with a man that led to unwanted pregnancy. Then being taken to the health facility it took long due to that distance and there, due to the doctors negligence, I was left pushing for more than 18 hours before I was transferred to another health facility. Due to lack of oxygen in that very facility so originally, in another health facility which is a mission hospital, the baby had already died so I just went for a caesarean section so I gave birth to a still born baby boy of about 4.8 kilograms. Then after three days of post delivery, I realized that I was leaking urine, and then was the time that I was told that I got a fistula.

KOSTOVA: And what happened after that, did you get treatment right away?

KIDANGASI: No, it wasn't possible because on that very facility, I was told that I can seek further medical assistance and I was told that at the moment, at that health facility there were no doctors, there were no specialists. So I was told I could get the financial for a doctor from abroad to come and repair the "thing". So due to my financial status, or our family financial status, we couldn't afford that so I was just discharged and I went home in that condition.

KOSTOVA: So when did you finally get treatment?

KIDANGASI: It is after 12 years with the condition. It is this year in April that I suffered depression in the facility that I was taken. I was suffering depression. I was told that now the fistula treatment is there and it's a bit affordable. So that is now in May that I went for repair in the same health facility

KOSTOVA: So how did you cope in the meantime, what was your life like?

KIDANGASI: It was horrible really, it was unbearable. It's hard to explain because people cannot understand it. And it is something that I wouldn't want to dream that there are ladies or a woman somewhere in the same condition.

KOSTOVA: And when did you start speaking out about this?

KIDANGASI: Immediately after being discharged, I had a heart for these women because I realized that if at all I suffered for 12 years, then there must be so many women back in our countries suffering the same way I suffered so I decided to go public and talk about it.

PRESENTER: That was Sarah Omega Kidangasi, a young woman from Kenya who survived fistula and is now an advocate to ensure that other woman know that treatment is available for this condition. She was speaking with UN Radio's Bissera Kostova.

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PRESENTER: And that's all for this edition of UN and Africa. Our Production Assistant was Florence Poblete-Enriquez and our sound engineer was Zach Pruwit. I am Derrick Mbatha saying bye-bye.

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