Global News Podcast - Sudan’s army retakes Khartoum airport from paramilitary RSF

Episode Date: March 26, 2025

Sudan's army recaptures Khartoum airport from the Rapid Support Forces, marking its latest territorial gain in the civil war. Also: a Canadian actress tries to renew her visa, only to find herself detained for days.

This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janet Jaleel and at 14 Hours GMT on Wednesday, the 26th of March, these are our main stories. Sudan's army says it's recaptured the airport in the capital Khartoum from the RSF paramilitary force. It's been battling for two years. Wildfires raging in South Korea have killed at least 24 people as firefighters battle to contain the flames.

A major South Korean inquiry has found that for decades governments failed to protect children sent abroad for international adoption. Also in this podcast a new launch date has been announced by an Australian airline for the world's longest non-stop flight. We begin with what looks like a significant development in Sudan's civil war, which has caused what the UN calls the world's biggest humanitarian crisis. Sudan's army says it's retaken control of the airport in the capital Khartoum from the rival paramartoum from the rival paramilitary force, the RSF. This follows the army's recapture of the presidential palace last week as it tries to push the RSF

out of Khartoum. Since the conflict began nearly two years ago, tens of thousands of people have been killed and 12 million have been displaced. I asked our Africa regional editor Will Ross if this claim about the recapture of the airport was credible. Yes, it seems to be true that the army, the Sudanese army, has taken over the airport and it's pretty rapid, this kind of move across the areas of the capital cartoon that had been under the control of the RSF are rapidly being taken back by the army have to remember this is a city that was home to around Six million people at least before the war broke out

Almost two years ago. So there have been some scenes of celebration in parts of the capital Khartoum People just glad to see the RSF leave they've been suffering under the roadblocks They set up the harassment the abuses and the city has been looted a lot But the army's basically saying the whole of Khartoum is pretty much under its control And we haven't seen an awful lot of fighting. There are videos showing some of these RSF fighters moving pretty rapidly across the Jebel al-Wiya Dam. There's a bridge there across the River Nile and they're then heading west towards the Darfur region. How significant is this because the RSF still controls considerable territory in Western Sudan?

Well I think it's a huge moment for the people living in Khartoum and that's why there are the celebrations, huge relief. But whether this war will rumble on with intense fighting or whether we're moving now towards a situation where you've got the RSF in control of large parts of the country but mostly the Darfur region and then the army in control of central and southern areas and the east, Port Sudan. Whether this is now kind of the country split in half and that may possibly move towards a more peaceful time in terms of a lack of fighting between the two sides but we don't know what the army's plan is as far as Darfur and trying to move on those RSF areas, but just this

week we've had appalling atrocities taking place in Darfur, including the report that we had 24 hours ago of a market being bombed from the air by the army, so the abuses are still going on on both sides, civilians trapped in the middle. But this is a significant moment, certainly for the population of Khartoum. Will Ross, multiple wildfires continue to ravage South Korea's Southeast region, fueled by strong winds and dry weather. At least 24 people have been killed as we record this podcast, with officials

reporting that most of the victims were in their 60s and 70s and unable to flee their homes in time. Entire neighbourhoods have been devastated, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. Among the buildings destroyed was an ancient temple. Jang-woo is a monk at the major Buddhist landmark. I really hoped that nothing would go wrong. But when I heard the news that a temple was on fire, I honestly felt so devastated that I couldn't come to my senses. It was an extremely painful feeling.

And I wondered how something like this could happen. Elsewhere, efforts are being made to relocate valuable historical artifacts and move them to safety. Meanwhile thousands of firefighters backed up by the military are continuing to battle the flames which began last week. A pilot was killed when his firefighting helicopter crashed in the mountains. Speaking at a news briefing in the capital Seoul the acting president Han Han Duxu gave this update. Despite deploying all available personnel and equipment to combat what has become the worst wildfires in the nation's history, the situation remains critical. With the potential for wildfires like we've never experienced before spreading in just a few hours, the remainder of this week must be devoted entirely to suppression efforts.

I got more from Rachel Lee of the BBC Korean Service. The fires have been raging across southern part of the Korean Peninsula for days now and they're still not under control. And in some counties, flames are just spreading rapidly toward the main town after firefighters' helicopters were grounded due to the crash. these flames are just spreading rapidly toward the main town after firefighters' helicopters were grounded due to the crash but now with the resume of helicopter deployment, we're hoping to see improvement. And now fires have already burned through large forest areas and even threatened residential zones, wooden temples and even historic treasures as well.

And why have they been so deadly? So fires do happen here, especially during this dry spring season, but the scale and speed of these recent fires are something we haven't seen in a long time. And what's made this one so intense is the mix of dry air, strong winds, and warmer than usual weather. And to give some context, the biggest wildfire on record was in 2000, which burned nearly 24,000 hectares and left two people dead. And now this one ranks third in size, but it's the deadliest.

Now the government is talking about tougher rules on things like illegal burning, better emergency alerts and faster response system. So this kind of tragedy doesn't repeat itself. And have you been speaking to people who've been caught up in these fires and what have they been saying? Actually, I have. I have been speaking to some of the people and they're saying it's just so tragic. And mostly in these areas where it was hit by the wildfire, mostly there are elderly people in their 60s and 70s living there. And they've been living there for their whole life and they have nowhere to go, which makes it even more tragic.

And some people are even providing shelters for firefighters to take a rest. And they're just cooperating more to tame the wildfire. Because the firefighters are under intense pressure, aren't they? They are, they are actually. Earlier in the day, one of the helicopters battling the blaze in Uiseong County crashed around lunchtime. And the pilot, a 73-year-old old man, was the only one on board, and sadly he didn't survive,

and it was carrying a water. And after the crash, the Forest Service made a tough call to ground all firefighting helicopters nationwide until they could figure out what went wrong. But the authorities decided to resume the deployment from 3.30 p.m. local time. And investigators are trying to understand if it was a technical issue or weather related. Rachel Lee in Seoul. A doctor from Gaza, whom Israel has described as a terrorist, has had his detention extended by another six months without charge or trial, according to his lawyers. Dr. Hussam Abu Safiha was taken by the Israeli military during its raid and closure of the Kamal Adwan Hospital

in December. He was last seen walking through the ruins of his hospital to give himself up to Israeli troops. Israel says he's a member of Hamas. Dr. Abu Sophia's lawyers say they have not been able to get access to any evidence as Israel has a quote secret file which they're not allowed to see. Our correspondent in Jerusalem, Emman Nader, told us more about the doctor's incarceration. His detention has been extended another six months. He's already been detained for three months after the hospital was forcibly evacuated at the end of December. Under the law that Israel is holding him under, he is not entitled currently to a trial or charge. It's a kind of an administrative detention and his defense lawyers have

been protesting his detention as as Dr. Abu Sufiyah who says he is only a doctor and was only ever providing medical treatment to people in the northern areas of Gaza. The Israeli case against him according to his lawyers is that he poses a threat to the state of Israel and this is building on those charges you mentioned accusing him of being a member of Hamas and indeed the hospital itself being a Hamas terrorist stronghold. When the army raided it, they arrested around 240 people they accused of being Hamas members and now his lawyers are saying that he's being subjected to maltreatment as well with accusations of beatings, including by sticks and electric batons. So really difficult circumstances

according to his lawyers. The Israeli authorities haven't commented on these particular allegations around abuse against Dr Abu Sufiyah. Briefly, just tell us about the wider situation in Gaza. Well, we are seeing a real expansion of the Israeli military campaign. We've seen new evacuation orders for parts of northern Gaza. According to the UN now there are a hundred thousand people in new areas that have been identified for evacuation adding to the already 120,000 people who've been evacuated since the past week

and we're seeing a real difficult situation in terms of access to food and fuel since the beginning of Israel's blockade at the start of the month on aid. So it is indeed a difficult situation as Israel continues to push into the Gaza Strip. Emine Nader, well while much of the world's attention has been focused on Gaza, violence in the occupied West Bank has been increasing. On Monday, the Oscar-winning Palestinian film director Hamdan Balal was attacked at his home in the West Bank by Jewish settlers. His injuries were bad enough for an ambulance to be called. But then, according to the director's friends, the Israeli Defense Force arrived, took the

director away from the ambulance and arrested him. The IDF says its soldiers were attacked by rock-throwing Palestinians. The details of what happened exactly remain unclear. But since then, a witness to the aftermath has spoken to the BBC. Raviv Rose is Jewish and works for the Centre for Jewish Non-Violence which aims to build reconciliation between Jews and Palestinians. Upon hearing of the incident, Raviv Rose and fellow activists drove to Mr. Bilal's home, where they too were attacked by Jewish settlers. When we tried to approach the house, three of us got out of the car on foot and that's when settlers basically approached us.

At first one person was shouting, He started pushing and shoving, then throwing punches, and then about 15 more settlers, some of whom were armed, appeared over the hill. And they started throwing stones at us. We ran back to our car with us inside the car. They threw stones at us, completely destroying the car, slashing the tire, breaking the front and back windshields and the windows. The army approached and failed to do anything, but eventually the settlers did retreat. We asked them to pursue the settlers and they completely refused. Later on, we saw Handan and two others, Nasr and Khal Khaled being arrested and went up to the houses and learned that they had been attacked at their home. I saw a pool of Hamdan's

blood in front of his house. Hamdan Balal was later released. Our correspondent Dan Johnson has been to his village of Susia in the West Bank. Three weeks ago Baseladra was alongside Hamdan Balal in Hollywood, picking up the Oscar for Best Documentary. Today he was outside his co-director's house waiting for news and recounting what he saw here. Settler soldiers started pointing their guns towards us with the lights, laser on our eyes and faces, while the other group of settlers on the back throwing stones from different

directions at us. I ran in that direction, Hamdan came to his home where his wife and children were and he closed the door. The settlers recognized Hamdan and know him like from before and attacked Hamdan before. They started attacking him physically with the soldiers. Hamdan was shouting I need ambulance, I need help. Mr. Balal was among those arrested and questioned after what the Israeli military said was a violent confrontation between local Israelis and Palestinians. The IDF said the Palestinians were apprehended for hurling rocks. Activists from an anti-occupation group said a group of 15 to 20 settlers attacked them

before the military arrived. This happened on the dusty hilltops around Soucia. There's a car here with all its windows smashed, its tyres slashed and its windscreen wipers torn off. People living here say this is the sort of violence they're experiencing more and more. Since the beginning of January, 45 attacks such as the attack of yesterday, 45 attacks. It just continues and this is like insane and increasing and raised in crazy numbers. Mr. Balal was released but went to hospital for further treatment. An Israeli was also

arrested here last night, but Palestinians say Jewish settlers are increasingly emboldened and unaccountable. Dan Johnson in the West Bank. Still to come in this podcast. My phone was right over my hand, my hands up against the wall, they started patting me down and I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what is happening? We hear from the Canadian actress who tried to renew her visa only to find herself detained in the US for days on end.

You're listening to the Global News Podcast. Let's return to South Korea, a country which since the Korean War ended in the 1950s has sent at least 140,000 children abroad for adoption. But now a three-year long investigation has concluded the successive governments facilitated a foreign adoption programme that was rife with fraud and abuse. Park Sun-young is chairperson of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a government-appointed fact-finding panel that wrote the report. South Korea had become the world's poorest country after the Korean War and actively promoted international adoption for economic reasons. The word active coupled with hurry-hurry culture led to inadequate legislation and a hasty administrative process. International adoption continued into the 90s

and the children who were adopted bore the full brunt of the damage. Our Asia Pacific editor, Miki Bristo, has been following the story. I think it's worth reminding listeners that the scale of all of this is huge. We're talking about across seven decades, 140,000, maybe as many as 200,000 Korean youngsters sent abroad for adoption, most to the United States, but also to Europe, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Australia. What this Commission was looking into was a small fraction of those adoptions. They had 400 or so complaints and they've managed to only have time in three years

to check out about 50 or so, but even so in that small fraction of complaints they've found so many abuses. And tell us about that. We've got a hint there from the chairperson of the commission. In the 1950s, after the Korean War, South Korea was a poor place. Lots of families had been broken apart. There were unwanted children, many fathered by soldiers from the United States who fought in the war, and that began the process. But by the 60s and 70s it became something of an industry. Lots of demand abroad and Korean

private adoption agencies willing to supply that demand. So doing things like falsifying records, coercing single mums into giving up their babies and all this done with the government turning a blind eye because it meant at least they didn't have to do something, they didn't have to pay money to support these youngsters, they could get them off their hands and send them abroad. So real patchwork of terrible things happening to these children. And what response has there been to this report? Well the Commission itself believes that the government should apologize and bring in some kind of compensation for all those people who have been found to

have been treated poorly. The adoptees themselves, some have welcomed this report, others say it doesn't go far enough. The government hasn't responded officially yet. I think this is going to just be the start of this, as I suggested before, only a fraction of cases have been investigated. This ruling has probably lead to a lot of private prosecutions and a lot of unearthing of this past, which the chairperson of this committee said is a shameful episode really in South Korea's history. Danielle Pletka Mickey Bristow, after seven nights of protests across Turkey over the arrest of President Erdogan's main political rival,

Ekrem Imamoglu, the main opposition party in Turkey, the CHP has called for a mass rally on Saturday to demand early elections. Amid fears that the president could try to use the protests to discredit the opposition after he called them violent and evil, the CHP says it's ending its nightly demonstrations as it looks at how it can best forward its campaign to challenge Mr Erdogan's decades-long grip on power.

Our correspondent, Mark Lowen, has been out on the streets of Istanbul to meet some of those demonstrating. I'm outside Istanbul Technical University where hundreds of students have camped out on the steps outside holding banners and announcing that they're boycotting their classes in solidarity with the massive anti-government protests. Every few minutes a car drives past booting their support. There's another one and that prompts even more cheers from the crowd here. We don't want Turkey to be a dictatorship. We want equal rights, equal elections. All of you have got your faces covered pretty much. Why

is that? Our government trying to find us and take us without any warning from our home and we are trying to prevent to be visible to them. And are you going to carry on coming out here? We're not stopping. I'm actually Turkish but I'm studying in Germany. In Germany I can walk on the streets at night but here I can't do that. I think it's dangerous and the laws, they don't work. So if someone stabs me or something, if they harass me, rape me, they're not going to go into jail.

What is your message to President Erdogan? To listen to us. And do you think he will listen? I don't think so, but we will make him. But the man who has led Turkey for 22 years isn't listening. Hitting out at Ekrem İmamoğlu, the Istanbul mayor whose arrest sparked these protests last week, President Erdoğan slammed those who, in his words, want to terrorize our streets and turn our country to chaos.

And that's the message that the Turkish media, 90% of it controlled by Erdoğan and his supporters, hammers home. That İmamoğlu is guilty as charged, not that he was brought down by the president to new to a political threat. Several Turkish journalists who have covered the protests have been arrested, as the president's clampdown on his critics continues, another sign of the authoritarianism that this movement is rising up against. I've come across the city now to Istanbul City Hall,

where these protests began last Wednesday and where once again huge crowds have gathered. The CHP opposition party says this will be the last night that they gather here, that they want this movement now to spread into grass roots protests. My name is Betul. This is not about this or that political party. What is at stake right

now is fundamental rights of a democratic society. So, Imamoglu, we want to see him as our next president. Will you carry on protesting in other parts of the city, other parts of the country? If the leaders of the political movements decide to carry on, I believe the people of Turkey will support it and will be in these streets at night." And that is the question now, whether Turkey's largest street protests in over a decade can continue to build momentum, or whether they fizzle out as just another of the challenges

that President Erdogan has overcome or crushed. He's emboldened by a new ally in the White House and by a Europe that needs him on everything from Ukraine to Syria. But at home, the Turkish strongman is looking weaker and a polarised nation is crying enough. That report by Mark Lohan. Many Canadians travel seamlessly across the border with the US for work and travel. But that wasn't the now much publicised experience of the Canadian actress Jasmine Mooney. She found herself detained for nearly two weeks, locked inside a cell without any explanation. It all started with what appeared to be a simple error over her original visa

application. She says that while she was eventually released, thanks to media pressure, she's met many others who've been detained in similar circumstances. She's been speaking about her ordeal at the hands of border agents to Julian Warica. JASMINE WARRICK-WELLS-WELLS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS-WILLIAMS was waiting, they go, Jasmine, can you come talk to us? And she says, so we were told that we cannot process this visa because you have had two issues in the past. And she goes, you are not in trouble. But because of these issues, and because we can't give you this visa here, we have to send you back to Canada. And in my head, that meant, okay, like I'm booking my flight and I'm going back to Canada and showing them proof.

I sit down and I kid you not, and this man comes out and he says, Jasmine, come with me. He brings me downstairs and all of a sudden, all my things are ripped from my hands. My phone was ripped from my hand, my hands up against the wall. They've started patting me down and I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what is happening? And they're like, you're being detained. And it took me 12

days to get out and I went to jail. And when they detained you, did they say why on what grounds? So it wasn't until day three that I was allowed a phone call, which I only remembered my best friend's phone number. So I was only able to contact her who I'm like, you need to call my lawyers, you need to call my family. And that was the first time that an officer talked to me and they said, here's your paperwork. You are being banned from America for five years unless you appeal.

It doesn't matter if you sign or not though because this is happening regardless. Talk to me about those 12 days in terms of other people that were being held in similar circumstances to you. Did you meet others who had a similar story? So there was about a hundred and I would say 140 women in my unit. Everyone was placed in the system for different reasons, but a lot of them had similar stories. So a lot of women had legal working visas and either overstayed or they were reapplying in an office and they got denied and thrown in like me. How did you get out in the end? I had multiple lawyers and then I was able to get in contact with the media while I was

in prison. And the second that my story got launched, ICE officers called my lawyers and said, oh, yes, she's in here. We weren't aware that she would pay for her own flight home. Yeah, we'll get her out of here no problem. And I was released the next day. But that is an absolute lie because from the second that I was put into that system, I told every single officer

that I would pay for my flight home. What do you see as being the issue here? Who do you blame for what happened to you? What everyone needs to understand is the system that I was put into is a privately owned, publicly traded company. It is given government grants to run these businesses, but the government isn't running what I was placed into. So I am trying to bring this to light to make change that they do in an investigation of what is actually going on in there.

MS. JANET HURD-GOODJER, HOST, The New York Times, The New York Times, The New York Times Jasmine Mooney speaking to Julian Huarica. Now, if you're a keen traveler and you've been wanting to try out the non-stop flight from Sydney to London that's been promised for years, you're going to have to wait a bit longer. The Australian airline says a launch date for the service, dubbed Project Sunrise, has been delayed again. It's planned Sydney to London or New York flights won't take off until 2027.

When it does get off the ground passengers will be airborne for a straight 19 hours but will they want to spend so much time trapped in a flying metal tube? Here's our business reporter Nick Marsh. There's gonna be people who would relish the prospect there's also gonna be people who couldn't think of anything worse than spending what 19-20 hours stuck on a plane. But Qantas says there is demand for this and it's actually a route that's been years and years in the making. The first test flights started in 2019.

Qantas had to prove basically that the pilots, crew, passengers could physically withstand, psychologically withstand such a long journey. It was actually supposed to be launched this year, but there were delays with the aircraft. Regulators wanted modifications to the fuel tank. So the new launch is going to be in 2027, the CEO of Qantas has confirmed. At the moment, the world's longest non-stop flight is a Singapore Airlines flight from here in Singapore to New York. That's about 18 hours or so. Perth to London is also another very long haul flight that Qantas offers. And they are very popular.

Qantas says that the data shows that people don't mind putting up with the extra cost or the discomfort if it's a direct flight. So it will be interesting to see how many people want to take this. Another thing I was thinking though, it's going to be interesting also to see the impact on places that benefit from stopovers. So like Singapore for example, people like to take a day or two to explore the city and break up the journey. So we're gonna have to wait and see for another couple of years to see how all this pans out as well. Nick Marsh, before we go we have to apologise for a mistake made in the previous podcast. It was in the story about world athletics approving the

introduction of a one-time swab test to check whether competitors are eligible to take part in women-only events. In the piece by Jane Dugle, she said the boxer Lin Yuting was from China. She is in fact Taiwanese. So apologies for that mistake and thank you to those of you who got in touch to point it out. Your feedback is always welcome. And that's all from us for now but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or point out any other mistakes, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. This edition was mixed by Mark Pickett, the producer was Carla Conti, the editor is Karen Martin. I'm Janette Jaleel. Until next time, goodbye.