Global News Podcast - Hundreds, possibly thousands, feared dead in Mayotte cyclone

Episode Date: December 16, 2024

Hundreds, possibly thousands, are feared dead in cyclone-hit Mayotte in the Indian Ocean. Also: the previously unheard stories of women inside Iran’s Evin Prison, and the world's biggest iceberg - on the move again.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritzen and in the early hours of Monday 16 December these are our main stories. Hundreds, possibly as many as a few thousand people, are feared dead in Cyclone Hit, Mayot, where survivors say they're facing drastic conditions. The UN envoy for Syria has called for a swift end to sanctions on his first visit to Damascus since the rebel takeover. A former Israeli prime minister says Benjamin Netanyahu's plans to expand settlements in the occupied Golan Heights are an unnecessary confrontation with post-Assad Syria.

Also in this podcast... I'm interrogated 10 to 12 hours every day. The jailer would knock on the cell door and say, do you hear that? They're beating them. Be ready. You're next. Men molest you here and no one cares.

The previously unheard stories of women inside Iran's notorious Evin prison. Let's begin in the French overseas territory of Mayotte, just a tiny collection of dots in the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and Mozambique. It's home to around 300,000 people who've just endured one of the worst storms on the archipelago in nearly 100 years. In our earlier podcast we quoted French media reports from soon after the cyclone made landfall on Saturday stating that four people had been found dead. Now as we record this

podcast authorities in Myot are warning that the death toll from cyclone Chido will be in the hundreds if not the thousands. The storm spared no one and nothing. Homes, boats and schools were all destroyed. Even the capital's hospital, these people in the main city of Mammouzou, were queuing for food and water. We've come to get something to eat,

for the kids, for us adults, for everything. We've got nothing left. The wind's taken it all away. We had stocked up but the wind took it all away." We've had no water for three days now. We're trying to get the bare minimum to live on because we don't know when the water will come back. Cheado then moved on to hit northern Mozambique with videos on social media showing flooding and uprooted trees near the port city of Pemba. The UNICEF spokesperson in Mozambique, Guy Taylor, is there.

UNICEF is concerned about the immediate impacts of this cyclone, the loss of life, the damage to schools, to people's homes, to healthcare facilities. We're also worried about the longer-term impacts. Children potentially being cut off from learning for weeks on end. People unable to get access to healthcare and the potential spread of waterborne diseases like cholera and malaria. Getting hold of anyone on Mayotte is proving almost impossible. Phone lines and the internet are down. The BBC's Richard Kagoi, who's in Nairobi, has been piecing together what's happened. What we're hearing right now is that emergency responders are currently trying to reach most

places, you know, trying to clear so then they can be able to access much of the debris which has covered where homes that majority of the people in the island are once lived. What is the latest in the island once lived. What is the latest on the relief operation? So far we have 110 French soldiers who had been deployed just before the cyclone struck and today the first aircraft are carrying aid, specifically medical supplies, blood for transfusions and 17 medical staff, touchdown in the airport which are significantly damaged.

We're expecting two more aircrafts to come as well and when the French Interior Minister will be travelling to the island he'll be coming along with 160 other soldiers plus firefighters who are now going to assist with rescue and the clearing operations. And presumably we're going to have big problems going forward with just basic things like food and medicine. Yeah, it is a very poor island. In fact, actually it's the poorest of all the French territories. What's happened right now is because of the devastation, the destruction that has been caused, you'd have lots of people who have been displaced. About 300,000 people lived in this island. So preliminary estimates

put it at about 100,000 of them don't even have a shelter. So first of all, access to clean drinking water, which was a huge challenge even before the cyclone, having access to food, to medicine. This is really going to be a major challenge going forward. And Richard, Chido has now made landfall in Mozambique. What word are we getting about its impact there? Yes, so far the reports that I have from Cabo Delgado where the cyclone landed is that homes, especially within several neighborhoods in Pemba City, have been damaged, hospitals and schools as well.

We can't quite ascertain the extent of the damage because even communication has been cut off as well as electricity and the storm has moved inward now to Nampula province and there's a possibility that despite the fact that it's going to weaken might reach even the southern tips of Malawi. So that's basically the situation at the moment in Mozambique. Richard Kagoway. Israel has said it plans to expand its settlements on the Golan Heights which it captured from Syria in 1967. The Israeli occupation is considered illegal under international law. It's currently home to about 20,000 Israeli settlers as well as a similar

number of Syrians, mostly Druze Arabs. Announcing the new plans, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the aim was to double the population. Since the fall of the Assad regime, Israeli forces have already moved further into Syria beyond the UN-monitored buffer zone. The UN says that's a clear violation of Syria's sovereignty. They've also carried out hundreds of airstrikes on military targets linked to the old regime. Here's Mr Netanyahu speaking earlier. We have no interest in confronting Syria.

We will determine Israel's policy towards Syria according to the emerging reality on the ground. I remind you that for decades, Syria was an active enemy state to Israel. It attacked us again and again. It allowed others to attack us from its territory. It allowed Iran to arm Hezbollah through its territory. However, I would like to both clarify and warn we are committed to preventing the re-arming of Hezbollah as well. The expansion of settlements in the

Golan Heights is a move which is firmly opposed by the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. I don't see any reason to do it. Prime Ministers say that we are not interested in expanding the Erhard Olmert. do precisely the opposite. I mean, I don't see any reason. We have enough problems to deal with. He has to stop the war in Gaza immediately. We have to try and bring back the Israeli hostages from Gaza. And we don't need any unnecessary confrontations with a new regime in Syria, particularly after they announced that they are not interested in confronting us. So if they are not interested in confronting us, why do we have to do something which may cause the opposite? The government says it's about shoring up Israel's defences along its northeastern border, while the situation is so fluid in Syria. I mean, do you accept that at all?

I don't think that expanding the Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights has to do with security at all. There is a problem. We don't know yet precisely who these new guys are and what are their objectives. What are they going to do? Are they going to continue their belligerency against the state of Israel or not? Syria has not been friendly to us. We did have problems with Syria and border problems. But as of late, I think we didn't need to fight in Syria. And I hope that we will not have to do it with the new regime. And I don't see any contribution to security by building Israeli new Israeli settlements. Eherd Olmert speaking to James Menendez.

On his first visit to Damascus since the toppling of the Assad regime, the UN envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, has called for a swift end to sanctions to help the country's economy recover. Mr Pedersen also urged justice, not revenge. I think the need, as I said said an orderly process and I'm very much looking forward to continue my discussions with the Syrian the Kheziki government and the authorities here. I and my team and the UN family we have been contacted by a wide range of Syrians. Our correspondent Sally Nabil

is in Damascus she told me how ordinary Syrians are affected by the sanctions. It's as if it's shackling the economy. So a lot of people are hoping that at some point in the near future, Syria will come out of this international isolation. I was visiting a very old market here in Damascus, talking to a shopkeeper who owns a shop for musical instruments and he said that before the war broke out he used to have customers queuing up in front of his tour. Now he barely makes $10 a day because of the international sanctions, he can't make any bad transfers, he can't import any material. So a lot of people are suffering in fact. There is talk, Sally, of lifting sanctions, but what conditions are going to have to be

met for that and also for HTS to no longer be on the list of terrorist organisations? Yeah, I believe they both go hand in hand. They have to prove that they can adopt a comprehensive political process. And the question is, will they be able or willing to do that? HTS used to be part of Jabhat al-Nusra and part of Al-Qa'aba, an extremist movement. And they broke away from them years ago, and now they are trying to prove that they are adopting a new approach. Will they be able to go as far as warning a comprehensive government that represents all Syrians? That's the big question now.

They're making the right noises though, aren't they? And the leader of HTS expressed that he's in no mood for further confrontation. He said that we will follow diplomacy. We are not up to more military confrontations. And he was referring to Israel and somehow Iran when he was talking about that. He criticized the Israeli tenuous airstrikes on the Maastricht and various parts of the Syrian territory. And he said, this is totally unacceptable and that the international community has to step and resolve this issue. As for Iran, he said that we are on good terms with the Iranian people, but he did not talk about the Iranian political elite who were one of the biggest backers of the former president Bashar al-Assad. So far, he's been adopting a reconciliatory tone

when it comes to politics, when it comes to how he treats the minorities, but how long this is going to last, whether or not these words will be materialised into actions, that's the big question. Sally Nabil. For conservationists in East Africa, protecting the region's lion population remains a constant challenge. Traditional practices like lion hunting among communities such as the Maasai have historically contributed to the problem. But change is underway. Every two years in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro

the Maasai celebrate their warrior-like athleticism with their own Olympic Games. Ella Bicknell reports. For the Maasai people, lions aren't just majestic animals. They're like them. Strong, brave, strategic and formidable. In the past, to kill a lion was the ultimate display of maturity and widely celebrated. But by the early 2000s, when the Amboseli lion population dropped to fewer than 20, it became clear that this cultural rite of passage was no longer sustainable. The Maasai needed a new way to celebrate the athleticism of their youth. And with the Big Life Foundation, they started the Maasai Olympics, a biannual sporting event bringing together hundreds of their best athletes.

The games include traditional hunting skills like throwing rungus, wooden clubs traditionally used by the community for defence against an attacking lion. There are also running races and javelin throwing and of course the high jump. This is a tribute to the yudumu, a jumping dance, often performed during the initiation of young Maasai men into adulthood. One of this year's competitors, Stephen Masinde, who won the 5,000 metre contest. It's important for me because everyone is looking to come here and compete. When they see others running, they want to come to train.

Yeah, they become champions. This year, a quarter of participants are female. Samuel Kangi is the game's chief coordinator. He says their inclusion is paramount. They are master warriors. Most of the time when they kill a lion, they have to bring back to home to make sure they dance, to attract girlfriends. So we need also girls to participate in this. So we started to include them with two events, 100 meters and 1500 meters.

And one of this year's female competitors was 19-year-old Valentine Nisamoie. Most of the ladies, they find themselves that they're just there to be married, bring cows to the family, being more dowry. But some events like these are enjoyable because the girls will notice their talent. After noticing their talent, they'll go to work hard for it

and it will help them. The games have emerged as a powerful alternative to ritualised lion hunting, offering the Maasai a way to celebrate their cultural heritage and athletic prowess without endangering the local wildlife. And 12 years on since the first games, the lion population is stronger than ever. 250 now prowl the greater Amboseli. Ella Bicknell. Still to come. It will head north eastwards and on the way it will encounter the beautiful island of

South Georgia on which there's many millions of penguins and seals. It does pose a potential threat to them. Twice the size of Greater London, the world's biggest iceberg is on the move again. length of service. We gotta make every bullet count. No surrender. Brave men who fought the Germans in the fields of France and Italy during the Second World War. But we're not fighting for us. It's for the people back home. Purple Heart Warriors, an original drama series from the BBC World Service, tells their story. Germans surrounding all sides.

Listen now by searching for dramas wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Mystery continues to swirl after nearly a month of unexplained drone sightings over New Jersey and other US states, alarming some residents. But now, a potential development. Two people have been arrested for flying drones near Boston's Logan Airport. I heard more from our Washington correspondent, Rowan Bridge. So this is 42 year old Robert Duffy and 32 year old Jeremy Falkick, who were arrested by Boston police after Boston police detected what they called a device dangerously close to Boston Airport. Effectively, they were then arrested on a

nearby island. Boston's got a bunch of islands that are just off its coast. They were arrested on one of those and police found a drone in a backpack carried by Robert Duffy, one of those two men. They are due to appear in court on charges of trespassing, but police say they might face further charges because flying a drone in restricted airspace is an offence and clearly that is extremely dangerous. If it hits an aircraft that can cause significant problems or a helicopter or equally just causing pilots to have to veer off course that can cause problems in itself. So there are activities if they were indeed flying a drone near an airport could be extremely serious. But I think it's unlikely that those are linked to the broader issue that we're talking about, about drones that have been spotted

around the northeast of the United States. Yeah, because you say that their drone was in a backpack. But the other drones that we're talking about, some of them seemingly in whole fleets, some of them are described as being the size of small cars. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting. The FBI set up a tip line because there were so many calls coming into the emergency services about these things. You know, I was reading a briefing that was given by the FBI. They said they'd had 5,000 calls into their tip line, 5,000 leads that they received. Of those, less than 100, they said, have been actionable. And someone was said, you know, do you think panic is set in here? And the FBI person said, I think there's been a slight overreaction.

You know, if you talk to the White House, they say they've no evidence that these drones pose any sort of national security or public safety threat, nor indeed that they're the work of any sort of foreign malicious actor. Having said that, there is clearly something going on. Nobody is suggesting that these drones aren't out there and it's not clear who is behind them and what are they doing. But I think the fact that you've got those visuals also just makes it a compelling visual story and that means television gets interested in it and that means it has really risen to the top of the political and media agenda. Do people think the White House, the Pentagon, etc, really do know what's going on? Yeah, I mean, if you go out there onto social media and onto TikTok or Facebook, you will

see plenty of people who will be full of conspiracy theories about what's going on here, you know, probably watch too many episodes of The X-Files. Nobody I've seen seriously suggest that these are being done, run from outer space. But I think, you know, this story has developed a momentum of its own, it develops a sort of energy of its own. And so you can sort of see that the authorities are trying to balance here, a responsible approach of trying to find out what is behind these things. Two of them have been spotted confirmed by the Department of Defence near military installations. Having said all of that, the authorities are worried about this thing almost developing a sort of level of panic beyond what it

really deserves and at the one hand they're trying to balance like a genuine and understandable level of concern with a risk that this thing is sort of developing a momentum where people are almost reaching panic levels around it, the sort of frenzy that is developed around the story. Rowan Bridge. The last five Australians convicted of drug offences in Indonesia as part of what became known as the Bali Nine have returned home after nearly 20 years in jail.

Celia Hatton reports. The Bali Nine were arrested in 2005 and were soon found guilty of attempting to smuggle 8 kg of heroin from Indonesia's famous holiday island. The case attracted huge media attention to Indonesia's strict drug laws. The accused ringleaders were executed by firing squad in spite of Australia's pleas for clemency. One other man died of cancer in prison and the only woman had her sentence commuted several years ago. The remaining five men were serving life sentences.

Australia thanked Indonesia for allowing them to return home on humanitarian grounds. Celia Hatton. The BBC has gained rare access to the unheard stories of women inside Iran's notorious Evin prison, including accounts of torture and threats of execution. Thousands of women in Iran were arrested after the Women Life Freedom movement in 2022. From multiple reliable sources, BBC 100 Women has built a detailed picture of life inside the prison walls, revealing the stories of women who continue to protest for their rights despite the risks. Golnush Golshani reports and a warning some listeners may find some of what follows distressing.

When nationwide protests broke out in Iran in 2022, Nasim's life changed. Until then, she had been working as a hairdresser. She loved rap music and makeup. But when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in police custody, Nasim and her friends decided to take to the streets in protest against the compulsory hijab. Kisarab! Kisarab! Kisarab! Like thousands of other women, she was arrested. Nassim! Nassim! Nassim! Nassim was taken to the notorious Evin prison,

where around 70 women are currently held as political prisoners. The BBC has obtained rare accounts of their daily life. Their words are spoken by actresses. There's no sound here, no trees, and it just smells like poison, a poison that doesn't kill insects. For four months, Nassim was kept in solitary confinement in a tiny windowless cell. She had no access to a lawyer, family or friends. I'm interrogated 10 to 12 hours every day.

The jailer would knock on the cell door and say, do you hear that? They're beating them. Be ready. You're next. Men molest you here and no one cares. Eventually she was moved to an overcrowded wing with up to 20 women in one cell. Iranian authorities crushed the demonstrations,

arresting tens of thousands of people and executing at least 10. But they couldn't break the spirit of the women in Evin Prison. They've kept their protests alive. Every Tuesday, they hold demonstrations against executions, chanting in prison yard, refusing to move all night, and staging hunger strikes. KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAAD, KHAJIDI SAA One of the inmates organizing the protests is Narges Mohammadi, a human rights activist

and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. The campaign has spread through jails across Iran, gaining international support. I painted the corridor like the ocean. It was like falling deep under the sea. Vida was arrested for her work as a journalist. In prison, she keeps herself busy painting on anything she can, from walls to bedsheets. I painted crumbling bricks and a beautiful forest beyond. Nargis joked that she would

run and jump into the painting, but always hit the wall instead. They sprayed over the painting at night. She also does portraits of the women here. One which was smuggled out of Evin is of Kurdish activist Pakhshan Azizi. She's been sentenced to death and there is great concern this may be carried out soon. Other women in prison are also facing execution. Vida says they often joke about it, trying to fight the dread with dark humor. We joke saying, why bother dyeing your hair anymore? You're going to be executed. We laugh because we don't want to believe it.

But deep down we're afraid. More than 800 people were executed for various crimes in Iran last year, the highest number in eight years according to Amnesty International. The harsh living conditions in prison and the difficulty accessing health care are having a lasting impact on many of the inmates. But the Iranian government denies allegations of human rights violations. It claims conditions inside Evin prison meet all necessary standards and that prisoners are not mistreated. Vida went on hunger strike demanding medical treatment for Narges

who suffers from life-threatening heart and lung conditions. Salam! Salam Azadi! Long live freedom! Earlier this month, Narges was granted temporary release on medical grounds. As she's taken out of the ambulance on a stretcher Last month, Nargis was granted temporary release on medical grounds. As she's taken out of the ambulance on a stretcher, with her curly black hair uncovered and her fist raised in the air, she yells, Freedom is our right. That report by Golnush Golshani. It's 400 metres thick and larger than many countries and for most of the past year it's

been stuck in a vortex in the Southern Ocean. But now the world's biggest iceberg, known prosaically as A23A, is on the move again. So what might this mean and where might it head next? To find out, I talked to Andrew Myers of the British Antarctic Survey. This iceberg, A23, broke off from the Ronnie Ice Shelf, so that's the very southern point of the Weddell Sea, which is sort of at the very bottom part of the Atlantic. And it broke off back in 1986, but very quickly just got stuck until in 2020 when it broke loose and then started drifting northwards.

We actually encountered it just as it was moving into the ocean that circles around Antarctica. It went north in what's called Iceberg Alley, where icebergs usually go to die, but then it encountered an unusual oceanographic feature called a Taylor Column. It's basically a swirling wall of water that moves around and around over a subterranean mountain. And A23 was stuck there since April this year,

just going in circles. But just in the last two weeks we've been monitoring it with satellites and it has broken loose and it's heading north again out into the open ocean. And because this isn't a climate change story unusually for this kind of thing, why should we worry about this? So it's not a climate change story per se, you know. So icebergs breaking off from the Antarctic ice shelf is completely normal with what ice shelves do. They basically slide down the Antarctic continents until they

encounter the ocean and then break off and float away. But what is relevant here is that this has been happening at a greater rate. So it's sort of like the wildfire stories. Wildfires are completely normal, but their rates at which they happen are increasing across the world. And it's the same with icebergs and iceberg carving. So you can't say any individual carving or any individual iceberg is climate change, but the rate at which we see them is definitely going up. And does it pose a threat to people? I mean, I guess it's so big ships are gonna know where it is. Yeah, it's about twice the size of Greater London. So it's the sort of thing you should be able to see coming and the ocean around Antarctica is not massively populated and the people who

are there really know their business so this shouldn't sneak up on anyone. So what happens next? Where do you expect it to go and assuming it does melt and go into the sea does that in itself cause us a problem? So I mentioned before Iceberg Alley, so it's this sort of pathway that comes out of the Weddell Sea sort of northwards across the Antarctic Circle polar current and that's the direction we figure that this iceberg will take. It will head north eastwards sort of towards Africa and on the way it will encounter the beautiful island of South Georgia on which there's many millions of penguins and seals. So it does pose a potential threat to them in that it may run aground near the island

and basically get in their way. They have a very specific path they take from their breeding colonies on the beaches out into their feeding grounds and having a huge iceberg in the way means they have to go a lot further and extend a lot more energy which is typically bad news for their pups at Chicks ashore. Andrew Myers of the British Antarctic Survey. And that's all from us for now. But there'll be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us

an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Pat Sissons and the producer was Alison Davis. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritzen. Until next time, goodbye.