Global News Podcast - Sudan homecoming after 18 months of civil war

Episode Date: October 16, 2024

Sudan's civil war has been raging for 18 months. Our reporter returns to his birthplace to find his home ransacked and his town in ruins. Also: Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, and the Grand Egyptian Museum opens in Giza.

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Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Jackie Leonard and at 13hrs GMT on Wednesday 16th October, these are our main stories. The authorities in Lebanon say at least six people have been killed in the latest Israeli airstrikes. Israel allows the first aid supplies for two weeks to enter northern Gaza, following pressure from the United States. And after 18 months of civil war in Sudan, our reporter Mohanad Hashim returns home to

find out what's been left of his childhood neighborhood. Also in this podcast, President Zelensky sets out the key points of his victory plan for Ukraine and... We are so happy to be here, to visit these beautiful sculptures and it's very modern and at the same time we can touch ancient. A preview of the Grand Egyptian Museum housing the world's largest collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts. We'll be getting the latest from the conflict in the Middle East shortly but we start this podcast with another devastating war which has been receiving far less attention. This week marks 18 months since the civil war erupted

in Sudan between the army and a powerful paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, leading to what the United Nations has called one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. It's estimated that as many as 150,000 people have been killed and more than 10 million people displaced. In some parts of the country there is famine. The BBC's Mohanan Hashim was born and raised in the city of Omdurman. He has finally been able to go back there to search for his home, family and friends. So I finally arrived in my neighbourhood in Omdurban. Al Morada Avenue is empty. The destruction is everywhere.

Fronts of the houses are smashed. You can see the old slogans of the revolution are everywhere. I can see signs of the looting. Peace be upon you. Peace be upon you too. How are you? I just bumped into my neighbor, Heysam Shebeka.

He's never left the neighborhood. All the houses around him were occupied by the RSF. They were sleeping everywhere and the extent of the devastation was total. Haysam lives opposite the Masjid. We're now walking into the Masjid for the prayer. The Masjid appears to be fine. No signs of the destruction that you can see elsewhere. Al-Hashmab is one of the old neighborhoods in the city. Our ancestors moved here in the late 19th century after they pledged allegiance to the

Mahdi, the founder of Umdurman. My mother's grandfather built this mosque in the 1930s and it is reassuring to come and find the faithful still hold their prayers here. It's strange to attend the mosque with so few people attending a Friday prayer, only three rows. I leave the mosque to visit my second cousin Wafa. She stayed alone in the house with a couple of ladies and I don't know what she's going to tell me and I don't think she's expecting me so it's going to be a surprise for her. My aunt Wafa tells me of the ordeals they endured.

She speaks of intimidation, theft, physical and verbal abuse and terror. It's good that I managed to come and visit my auntie Wafa. It's reassuring that she's managed to survive the worst month. But she's still standing. They've stolen everything she has, but she's relying on Allah and her faith. It is time to see my house. This is possibly the hardest bit of this journey,

visiting my family home where I grew up as a child. I'm looking at the house before I go inside because I feel it's going to be heavy. Let's go into the house I guess. Everything has been looted or destroyed or damaged. Bismillahir rahmanir rahim. Look at the destruction of it. Thank God that the pictures and the photographs are here. This is a diary of RSF soldiers stating the number of the force that was stationed here on the 3rd of October 2023. There were 35 RSF fighters here.

The guy in charge, his name is Mahmoud, and what they had in terms of Russians. Evidence of war. That's my father's PhD, a copy of it. And my grandma's prayer beads. How is this war going to end? I don't know. Inshallah, God willing, one day we'll be able to come back.

The people who used to live here will try and build new lives. Mohannad Hashim reporting from Omdaman in Sudan. The war in the Middle East shows no sign of abating. In the latest escalation, Israeli planes have resumed air strikes on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut for the first time in five days. At least six people have been killed in the city of Nabatea, including the mayor. Israel said it was targeting dozens of Hezbollah sites. Our correspondent Jonathan Head is in Beirut.

In Nabatea, where most of the focus has been, there were multiple airstrikes. The local residents that we've spoken to said there were nine very powerful explosions almost simultaneously one right after the other. They described it as absolute terror and a belt of fire. Some have said it was even more than nine. Israel has talked about multiple strikes against what it calls terrorist targets. Nabataea was hit very hard at the weekend. The historic Ottoman market was reduced to rubble an entire street on Saturday. Today it was the municipality building where the mayor, Ahmed Kahil, whose locals tell us are quite a popular figure. Of course it's a Hezbollah town dominated politically

by Hezbollah. He'd chosen to stay. This was a town that was under an evacuation order given by the Israeli defence forces right back on the 3rd of October and they've repeated that, but many people have stayed behind. And Nabatea was also a place that people displaced from areas closer to the border where the first Israeli land operation took place had fled to. So we're not sure how many civilians are still there. There's absolute devastation in the town, there are still rescue teams going through the rubble. The mayor has been confirmed as killed. Other members of his council

at this stage, as you say, six dead. That death toll could rise. The strike in Beirut was only a single one in Dahir early this morning. Dahir is the southern neighbourhood, which was hit very hard early on in this campaign. It is known to have a very strong Hezbollah presence. What was interesting about that was we hadn't had any strikes in Beirut since last Thursday and there was some talk by the Lebanese government that perhaps the Americans had persuaded the Israelis to leave the capital alone. We don't know if there was ever a deal done like that.

Israel has always insisted it will strike wherever it sees fit. Certainly we've had that one strike which means people in Beirut are now bracing themselves for the possibility of more. And so does it look like this means a more aggressive stage of the Israeli campaign? We have to look at numbers really. It's quite hard to keep tallies on how many strikes there have been. Most of them are still in the south where the Israeli ground operation is underway, where the IDF talks about dismantling terrorist tunnels about weapons caches. It seems a very extensive operation there. So the towns that are down there are being constantly hit. We know there were 200 Israeli airstrikes by their own account on Monday.

This is a much higher number than was happening previously. So we assume this campaign is in full way and may even be increasing in scope. That was Jonathan Head in Beirut. Meanwhile Israel is also under increasing international pressure over its offensive in Gaza. We learned yesterday that the US had told the Israeli government to increase the amount of humanitarian aid being allowed into the territory within 30 days or risk potential restrictions on American weapons funding. The Israelis appear to have responded by allowing the first aid into northern Gaza in two weeks. So does the US ultimatum seem to be paying off? A question for our correspondent in Jerusalem,

Yoland Nal. There's been no formal Israeli government response to this, but it's notable that that letter is dated on Sunday. And what we've had for the past three days, including now we know today, is a number of aid lorries passing in to the north of the Gaza Strip after a two-week stretch when the UN said no aid entered that part of the Palestinian territory at all as Israel was conducting a new ground offensive there and that has really led to rapidly deteriorating humanitarian conditions. In the past few minutes we got an announcement from the Israeli military that the biggest number of lorries so far has gone in 50 through two northern crossing points. And this includes, they say, food, water, medical supplies and shelter with aid coming from Jordan.

That was another requirement of this U.S. letter that goes into a lot of specific demands saying that the route from Jordan should be reinstated. And this announcement says that it's in accordance with a directive from the Israeli defence minister. Now he was one of the people to whom this message was addressed by these top Biden administration officials. That was Yolande Nel in Jerusalem. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has presented his much anticipated victory, which aims to strengthen

his country's position enough to end the war with Russia. In his speech to Parliament, he outlined five key elements, including the continuation of Ukraine's incursion into the Kursk region of Russia, the lifting by allies of restrictions on long-range strikes on Russia, and a formal invitation to join NATO. We are a democratic nation that has proven it is capable of protecting Euro-Atlantic relations and the way of life we share with other democratic nations. For decades Russia was using the geopolitical uncertainty in Europe and the fact that Ukraine is not a NATO member as a factor to challenge our safety.

A Ukraine invitation to NATO is fundamental to peace. Mr Zelensky also said it ruled out ceding more Ukrainian territory. Our correspondent in Kiev is James Waterhouse. I was keeping an eye out or an ear out for any kind of concession given the sort of realities of this war at the moment where Russia occupies a fifth of Ukraine, has done for the bulk of this full-scale invasion and it's only seizing more territory. But we've seen a President Zelensky, he did refer to the fatigue that the country feels. You can see it on his face, I think. He's been undertaking a diplomatic treadmill over the past few weeks to try

and keep the spotlight, the global spotlight on what is happening to his country. You can see him there addressing the Parliament building for the first time, revealing his conditions for peace. He has been talking about this so-called victory plan, it has been under wraps, and this is the first time he's sort of articulated what that means. But there was no mention really of a concession. As you say, there were sort of five points to it.

They include the immediate invitation to the NATO alliance, something that doesn't look to be happening anytime soon because of other members being compelled to help Ukraine in its defense against Russia. And that in the eyes of Western allies would amount to help Ukraine in its defense against Russia. And that, in the eyes of Western allies, would amount to a third world war. And then you have the second point, further strengthening of its defense sector in terms of the weapons it used and the targeting of Russian targets inside occupied territory. It goes on to talk about deterrent, sufficient deterrents to put Russia off from waging aggression in the future. Perhaps that involves a buffer zone of some sorts along the border. on to talk about deterrent, sufficient deterrents to put Russia off from waging aggression in

the future. Perhaps that involves a buffer zone of some sorts along the border. And then there was the containment, in trying to sort of contain Russian occupation, and then the post-war period where Ukraine has even proposed, he proposed stationing Ukrainian soldiers in other Western allies to share their expertise, their training, their combat experience from this full-scale invasion. I think what this is, is an elaboration of the demands he has made for some time. He is still saying he doesn't want to make a concession on territory. And he even claimed that it doesn't need Russia for this victory plan to succeed. But there is a reality here, That Russia still is relentlessly

pursuing its ambition of trying to conquer as much of Ukraine as possible. And I think President Zelensky, despite all of these factors, he's doubling down today. So it will be interesting to see what parliament, what Western allies make of this, given the realities on the battlefield, given the country's battered morale in some regards as it continues to try and mobilize enough men to fight, but notably we've seen a bit more of it into his thinking today. James Waterhouse in Kiev. A new flagship museum celebrating the wonders of ancient Egypt is opening next to the famous Giza Pyramids just outside Cairo.

The Grand Egyptian Museum houses the largest collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts in the world with more than a hundred thousand objects. It cost over a billion dollars to build and has taken more than two decades to complete, repeatedly delayed for various reasons including the Covid-19 pandemic. Here's what the first visitors to the museum had to say. We are so happy to be here to visit these beautiful sculptures and it's possible to compare with such museums like in Abu Dhabi, in England and all over the world. It's so amazed us. It's very modern and at at the same time, we can touch ancient. There's a lot of history.

There's a lot of things that we are not aware of, especially coming from the other side of the world. And seeing everything here and learning from the locals has been great. Ali Ibrahim worked as a conservator at the Grand Egyptian Museum. The public will have the chance to interact and engage with ancient Egyptian artifacts in one building and see this amazing and epic building. The big museum reflects the interest

of the Egyptian government and the Ministry of Antiquities to make our ancient Egyptian civilization accessible for many researchers, Egyptologists, scientists, even students from all over the world, public from all over the world, could go and see the ancient Egyptian civilization in one building, enjoy it, enjoy the panoramic landscape of the pyramid, live in the ancient time and research and study this antiquities and this ancient civilization. Ali Ibrahim. Still to come. Please can we request that you're saying from eating any nuts that you may have bought on board with you. But what are the dangers of getting on a plane for people with nut allergies? We'll hear about the latest review.

If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC podcasts. on Apple podcasts or listen to Amazon music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC podcasts.

An Italian naval ship carrying migrants intercepted in the Mediterranean has arrived in Albania. They will be the first people to have their asylum claims processed in Albania under a new agreement between the two countries. Italy's Prime Minister Giorgio Maloney has hailed the controversial scheme as reflecting the European spirit. Balkan's correspondent Guy Delornay reports. The Italian navy ship Libra arrived at the port of Shengjin early on Wednesday morning. It was carrying 16 people who were seeking asylum in Italy Italy but who'll have their claims processed in Albania. It's the first test of a controversial agreement between Italy and Albania. It could see

as many as 3,000 people at a time staying at two newly constructed facilities run by Italian officials. The first arrivals are from Egypt and Bangladesh, both considered safe countries by Italy. The human rights organisation Amnesty International has labelled the arrangement shameful, harmful and unlawful. An Italian member of parliament for the Democratic Party, Lia Quartepelli, is against the agreement. My colleague, Victoria O'Honda, asked her why. The government said that this still is history.

I mean, 16 men on a boat to Albania when Italy receives between 60,000, 80,000 people illegally through the Mediterranean every year. This is not historical. It's symbolic and it's very expensive. It doesn't solve the problem, but it flush the idea that we are not welcoming people anymore. I wonder whether the Italian public should pay 600 million euros for shipping a few hundred people to Albania. But the prime minister said that this is just a start, that it will eventually pick up and more people who will be trying to come into Europe via Italy will be taken to these centres in Albania. Well, the maximum capacity of these centres is 3000. And as said, Italy receives every year 80,000 people roughly, some years more,,000, some years a little less 65,000.

But this doesn't solve the problem of welcoming lots of people to Italy. It's just a symbol and it is a very expensive one. The Prime Minister said that this will deter more migrants coming to its shores, to Italy, and we really haven't seen that much message or criticism of this deal by the European Union as we saw when the UK was trying to have a deal with Rwanda. Do you think that is a kind of OK message? Is the EU agreeing with the move by Prime Minister Meloni? Well, I think the EU is trying, is waiting and seeing what happens. What must be said is that the number of migrants decreased compared to previous years because agreements with countries of origin, countries of transit are working. That is where we should work

better also with the help of the European Union. You mentioned over 80,000 migrants coming to Italy. How big an issue on the Italian system has this been? It is an issue, but I think the bigger issue is integration within our society, which requires lots of language courses, lots of workplaces, a goodwill from institutions that we're not seeing. That's the problem. I mean, this government has made more than 300,000 people legal. And that is the huge number of migrants. That is where we have to work.

We have to contrast illegal and black work. We have to contrast stigma and racism. That is where all the conflicts and difficulties connected to migration impact on the lives of Italian and foreign citizens. And the government is looking just at our borders, but not at what is happening in the country. And I think in the long term, in the medium long term, this will weigh on Italian conscience.

That was Leah Quartepelle and she was talking to Victoria O'Honday. Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated cities in the world and some of its residents have no choice but to live in tiny subdivided flats. But now the authorities have announced a ban on dividing flats into ever smaller units. Our East Asia regional editor, Mickey Bristow, told us about it. The new minimum set by John Lee in his annual address, this is the leader of Hong Kong, is eight square meters and for listeners who are finding it difficult to imagine how big that is, that's about the size of two double beds or a parking space. And remember that's

the new minimum. So up until now there have been apartments which were even smaller than that. That just gives you some idea of the space many people in Hong Kong live in and it's we're talking about a hundred thousand apartments about this size so many tens of thousands of people living in them. They're the city's poorest residents going out to work all day coming back and having to cram themselves into these very very tiny spaces. How do they manage to live in such a tiny space? It's difficult. I mean a couple of decades ago I myself lived in Hong Kong for a few months and I shared a room about this size with two other people. It was pretty appalling,

there was no kitchen, shared bathroom but that was just for a short space of time. Lots of people, as I said, the city's poorest, they're living in these their entire lives, trying to build their lives and trying to enjoy their lives as well as just kind of physically put things. Of course, John Lee has identified the leader of Hong Kong that these places, there's very little sanitation, they're not safe, there's no ventilation. Some of the other regulations he's putting into place is to say that every apartment has to have a window, it has to have its own toilet, just some of the basic amenities we all really expect.

And will this move actually help to solve the housing problem in Hong Kong? The housing crisis in Hong Kong probably not. This is about trying to improve the situation for the city's poorest residents to make sure that they have somewhere decent to kind of live in their life. The housing crisis in Hong Kong is probably going to go on essentially because there are seven million people all crammed into a tiny space. Much of that space is mountainous, hilly. It's hard to build on that. So it's not going to solve the housing crisis. Wholesale is going to help certain people. That was Micky Bristow. The Czech capital Prague has called time on nighttime pub crawls. The city has long been a favorite for stag and hen nights and a raft of travel companies are making a fortune by

cashing in on organized booze tours. But from now on the popular binge trips will be banned between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. local time. Wendy Urquhart reports. Crag has become such a hot spot for cheap drinking holidays that it actually holds the dubious title of world's thirstiest nation. According to reports, last year alone a whopping 128 litres of beer was drunk per head of the population in the Czech Republic, which is apparently mostly down to the throngs of foreign, mainly British tourists that descend on the city week after week after week.

It's hardly surprising really when you consider that a pint of beer costs less than three euros and that's cheaper than a bottle of water in some bars and restaurants. Prague One district mayor Tereza Radomirska says bar-hopping tourists are putting a strain on resources because the city is forced to deploy extra police officers overnight to keep the rowdy party-goers in order and extra staff to clean up after the revelers. Nowadays there's a big problem with large groups of people who are not walking through Prague to admire its beauty but to have a drink in each bar. These large groups of tourists are extremely

noisy because the whole thing takes place after 10 o'clock and it is extremely disturbing to the locals who have the right to sleep. Other cities in Europe have also launched campaigns to stem drunken tourism. Amsterdam's Stay Away campaign targets British tourists who search for stag party and pub crawl holidays online, reminding them that excessive drinking could result in fines, a criminal record, hospitalisation and permanent health damage. Venice has slapped a limit on the size of tour groups allowed into the city and several places in Spain, including Palma, Mallorca and Barcelona, are actively discouraging rowdy tourists from visiting. Barcelona has even vowed to ban tourist apartment rentals by 2028.

Around 7.4 million tourists head for Prague every year and the authorities are hoping that by clamping down on the heavy drinkers they'll attract more well-heeled cultured tourists who will appreciate the beauty that this UNESCO World Heritage Site has to offer. Wendy Urquhart, no stranger to a hen do. Now ever heard one of these announcements on your flight? That is for people like Zaina. She is allergic to nuts and peanuts and has suffered a reaction while flying before. I was on a flight once, it was like an overnight flight,

you know, told, the cabin crew, et cetera, wore a face mask as well, went to bed, woke up in the morning, like had really, really itchy, puffy eyes, I was sneezing uncontrollably. My antistamines weren't enough to kind of control my itchy eyes, my sneezing, and I just knew that whoever had been sat here before had eaten nuts. I think that was a six hour flight, so I think if you put that in perspective of if that had just been a

little bit longer could that have been enough to like set off a full anaesthetic reaction. Now research has shown it's not the cabin air that allergy sufferers need to worry about but cleaning where you sit is more important. A health reporter, Philippa Roxby, told us more. This was a review of previous studies that was put together by an allergy expert and an aviation specialist for the UK Civil Aviation Authority because commercial airlines are really keen to find out how they can keep people with allergies safe on flights. And they looked at all previous research and they discovered that actually not allergies, particularly food particles, don't travel through the air in a cabin in a plane. Planes are

actually very well ventilated and the air moves around the cabin but it doesn't go through the cabin. So if somebody's sitting 10 rows or 15 rows in front of you, what they're eating is not going to come back and hit you because the air is very clean. And so what they're saying is not going to come back and hit you because the air is very clean. And so what they're saying is some of these nut bands on flights are actually not helping people with allergies. What they should really be focusing on is the seat you're going to sit in that potentially there may be bits of food and bits of nuts, for example, on the seat left by a previous

passenger. So they're saying bring along some antibacterial wipes and just clean the seat before you sit down and that's probably a better thing to do. But even if the food particles aren't airborne, surely it's still better to refrain from eating nuts on board anyway, just so that there isn't any chance of leaving crumbs on board? I think experts would say that nut bands don't really work because people end up bringing them on board anyway and they might well be bringing them in snacks where they don't know they're included. You know, people

might be bringing snacks on board, little crunchy bars, snack bars for their kids and there are peanuts in them and they don't know. So what they would say is nut bands don't really work so it's better to look after your seat when you get on board and clean it first. And of course allergic reactions can take all forms, can't they? Yes, they can be very serious. There's a dangerous form which is sometimes life threatening called anaphylaxis and peanuts and tree nuts are one of the types of food that most commonly causes that form. And of course people with that type of allergic reaction should be carrying two

autoadrenaline injectors with them also called pens with them and allergy experts say that's really important you should be carrying those at all times and potentially even airlines should have an emergency supply of those and that's not always the case at the moment so there's lots of different things you can do they're definitely not minimizing the seriousness of allergic reactions but just trying to think of the best way of coping with them. That was Philippa Roxby. Now before we go Nick Miles has just wandered into the studio because he wants your help with a special global news pod edition right Nick? I certainly

do Jackie yeah fresh off my bike I am on message because it is the UN climate change conference. It is upon us again. It starts on November 11th in a big oil producing nation, Azerbaijan. Just before this year's event, I'll be quizzing two of the BBC's top climate change experts for a special global news pod. How is the world changing? How are we adapting to those changes? All these kind of questions, are we meeting emissions targets? Probably not. And here's where you, the listeners, come in. We want to put as many of your questions to our experts as we can. Yorgos Spanos has already been in touch. He's from Greece and he wants to know what happens when our oceans stop being able to absorb any more carbon dioxide. Great question.

I don't know the answer, but perhaps our experts will be able to tell us that. Please send us what you want to know with your name and where you're from, preferably as a voice note to globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. Thanks and we look forward to hearing from you. An email address engraved on all of our hearts. Thanks Nick. And that's it from us for now but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you would like to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it or indeed you want to send an email to Nick the address as I just mentioned is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk you can also find it on x at global news pod. This edition was produced by Judy Frankel. It was mixed by Abby Wiltshire. Our editor is Karen Martin.

I'm Jackie Leonard and until next time, goodbye. award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, Americast, and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from History to Comedy to True Crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC podcasts.