Focus on Africa

Who are the victims of enforced disappearances?

Every year hundreds of thousands of people go missing or are ‘forcibly disappeared’ around the world, and Africa has one of the highest number of cases. On International Day of the Disappeared we hear the testimony of one affected family, and discuss what needs to be done to effectively deal with the crisis.

As health officials from several African nations conclude a week-long summit to discuss the MPox outbreak, are they closer to delivering on plans for the rollout of vaccines? And what are the challenges of being a female stand-up comedian in Tanzania? Comedy sketch performer, Sakinah Chandoo, shares her wit and wisdom.

Presenter: Charles Gitonga Producers: Bella Hassan, Yvette Twagiramariya, Stefania Okereke and Sunita Nahar in London. Susan Gachuhi was in Nairobi. Technical Producer: Jonathan Greer Senior Journalist: Patricia Whitehorne Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi

Duration:: 35m
Broadcast on:: 30 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Hello and welcome to this podcast from the BBC World Service. Please let us know what you think and tell other people about us on social media. Podcasts from the BBC World Service are supported by advertising. Hey, true crime fans! Tired of ads interrupting your gripping investigations? Good news! With Amazon Music, you have access to the largest catalog of ad-free, top podcasts included with your prime membership. After all, ads shouldn't be the scariest thing about true crime. To start listening, download the Amazon Music app for free, or go to amazon.com/addfree-truecrime. That's amazon.com/addfree-truecrime to catch up on the latest episodes without the ads. Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds. At Mint Mobile, we like to do the opposite of what Big Wireless does. They charge you a lot, we charge you a little. So naturally, when they announced they'd be raising their prices due to inflation, we decided to deflate our prices due to not hating you. That's right, we're cutting the price of Mint Unlimited from $30 a month to just $15 a month. Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. $45 up front for 3 months plus taxes and fees, promoting for new customers for limited time. Unlimited more than 40 gigabytes per month slows. Full turns at mintmobile.com. Hello, I'm Charles Guitonga, and here it's what's coming up for you on this edition of Focus on Africa. Conversations about vaccine delivery to African countries continue in the wake of the rapidly spreading inbox virus. What is important is to recognize that we need funding. Without funding, we cannot address this problem that is currently ongoing in Africa. We must recognize that everybody is a stakeholder, whether you're in Africa or outside Africa. And in Tanzania, we'll hear from one of the rising stars in comedy on why the country needs more female comedians. Also, is it lucrative? Don't do it for the money because you'll starve. But we do it because we want the artistic experience. We want to be able to go on stage and speak our minds and talk about things that other people would find pretty traumatic, but we find very funny. It's Friday, the 30th of August. We begin with a story of global concern. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people go missing or simply disappear. It is difficult to determine the precise figures because many cases are never reported by the affected families. The issue of missing persons, including those forcibly disappeared, is one of the most damaging and long-lasting humanitarian consequences of armed conflicts, other situations of violence, disasters and migration. The impact and anguish caused to the families of those whose whereabouts are unknown can be devastating. So today, the 30th of August is designated the International Day of the Disappeared, which also includes victims of what's known as enforced disappearances. Mariano Griever works at the International Committee of the Red Cross Intercar, Senegal. He is the protection of Family Links Manager for North and West Africa. Mariano started by explaining to us the difference between the times missing and enforced disappearances. The enforced disappearances is a type that involves a state agents or their proxies, abducting or imprisoning a person, and thereafter refusing to acknowledge where their person is located or what has happened to him or her. We look at those enforced disappearances, but we look at other people who also go missing in a whole range of other situations. Civilian population can go missing, combatants during armed conflict can be missing in action, or migrants can go missing in their routes to their destination. And in fact, some other people go missing during natural disasters as well. So how do you as an organization then monitor these cases, especially in Africa? What methods do you use to be able to know how many people, for example, have gone missing in whatever circumstances? Well, everything starts with an interview with a family that approaches us to share with us that they have a missing family member, and then that would like us to search for that family member. And that's how it begins. We collect quite a bit of data, and then we remain in contact with this family throughout the search process. If you'd like, I can share a story with you about that. I remember this was a case I documented a while ago, someone who was originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC, and who had had to flee from his country of origin because of ongoing skirmishes and battles between armed groups. So he left subreptitiously without having being able to inform anyone and fled in one direction, ended up in a neighboring country, and then was subsequently resettled many years later, nine, 10 years later. So by the time he approached the right cross, he was an adult, and we interviewed him, we collected what we call a tracing request. And what was really interesting about this tracing request was that he knew the name of his mother, he knew the name of the village, but that was it. And he said that we can find his house because there was a very big mongo tree in the backyard, and he drew like a bit of a map as well as he could remember. At the time, I must admit, did not have much hope. His mother was located and we facilitated a telephone call, and his mother was in such shock and surprise because she thought he had died. During the phone call, she would ask him questions to try and make sure it was not some kind of hoax. And at the other end, we were with the person who had opened the request, laughing and full of joy to the fact that he was speaking to his mother and trying to convince her. Yeah, that's really, really touching. What are you finding out in terms of facts and figures, in terms of people that have gone missing on the continent and where in which countries or regions we see as most affected by this issue? So far, we have roughly 71,000 cases of missing people in the African continent. This is only the tip of a iceberg, because there's probably much more people missing. Africa represents the continent with the highest missing persons according to our caseload. They also have the highest number of unaccompanied registered children. So if you look at where armed conflict is ongoing, or where suddenly a natural disaster hits, or the migration routes that some individuals take, this will lead you to many missing or reports of people having gone missing by their family members reporting this. You have Nigeria, you have Somalia, you have Ethiopia, you have the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Sudan as well, for example, where you have ongoing armed conflict. And in the past, they also had, in the case of Sudan, other armed conflicts that had subsided and now they've picked up again. Mariano Griever. Now, for the last five years, Usman Idris Usman from Kaduna State in the northern part of Nigeria has been looking for his younger brother Abu Bakari Idris, popularly known as Daddy Yatta. He believes Abu Bakari is a victim of enforced disappearances. Here is what he told us. Actually, what happened to my brother occurred on the 2nd of August 2019. He was abducted in his home at his residence, located at Bernauer area of Kaduna State, Nigeria, after returning from a journey late in the night. That is about 1 a.m. in the midnight. It occurred inside his compound, where two men walked in after he drove in in his car before he goes to shut the gate. Two men holding some assault rifle went behind him and forced him back into his BMW car. He was pushed back into the car and fled away with him in the dark. This gentleman has been a critic of the then federal government and Kaduna State government. Prior to that, he has been telling us that he is receiving threats from many angles, but he has not disclosed precisely from who. Initially, we thought it was a case of, you know, the normal kidnappings. So we waited for any call to demand for any ransom, but there isn't any call up till now. And this car, his car has not been found anywhere. His dead body has not been found or reported from any place in Nigeria. There is no evidence as to who might be behind Abubakari's disappearance, but his family believes because he was a fierce critic of the politics in the country, it got him into trouble. Isa Sanusi is Amnesty International's country director in Nigeria. He gave me more insight into why the state or agents acting on the state's behalf would seize people, hold them captive and refuse to say where they are. When you have a government that is determined to deprive people of their liberty, it is also used by some governments to spread terror in the society, because if someone is disappeared, other people won't be scared and they may be living with the feeling that it may happen to them also. So it's an instrument of terror, it's a means of putting fear in the lives of people, and it is a means of targeting activists, journalists and other outspoken people who are well known for their dissenting views. My team may be able to give us figures, you know, headline figures for the continent. What are some of the figures that we can look at? It is very difficult to put a figure to these things because, you know, the figures have been actually changing, like, you know, in Libya, since the conflict started in Libya, hundreds of people who have been disappeared. In Nigeria, we have over 23,000, especially in the north. In the south east of Nigeria, we have about 500 cases. So the cases differ and they are different. It is very difficult to put a figure to the continent. Many families, when their member family is disappeared, they are even afraid to say that this person has been disappeared. Like in Eritrea, there are many of such cases. So what then needs to be done to put an end to enforce the disappearances? Because you've described a situation where we are seeing these cases in countries where the government might be behind some of those cases. So what could be done and who can do something to put an end to this? The thing about imposed disappearance is that the government never acknowledge those persons. In Nigeria, one of the things that we have proposed and we have been suggesting are recommending to the government and I believe that it can apply to all African countries is for the government to first of all recognize all those people that are disappeared. People should be encouraged to come out, to discard fear and come out and say, "Well, our family member has disappeared after forcing something on social media or after opposing the government or radio or something." After having this, sometimes these things happen as a result of dispute over land and the other party might be richer and stronger and may disappear. The other party just to take over the land. So it's a very complicated matter, but one of the best ways to stop it is for the African countries to all sign up to the Convention Against Insports Disafferance. Even countries that have signed it, unfortunately, are not doing anything to stop it. So we have to do that. Another important thing is that governments of African countries should come up with a register where families and communities will be encouraged to say, "Come out. If any member of our family is disappeared or is missing for so long and there was no information and give us details, we are going to follow up and we are going to do our best to see if we can help you to get information about that person." So this is very important because it will provide database. Maybe somebody is aware of what happened to that person, but in the absence of a central data that can be accessible to everyone, if, for example, the data says, "So-so person has been missing in Abuja and the last location, non-location is so-so place." Somebody who may have witnessed what happened to him may come forward and provide information that will help the family or the government in trying to trust that person or even tell the family that, "Okay, this person that was disappeared, he was killed at so-so time and that will give the family a closure and they are anguished about not knowing the whereabouts of their family member will come to and it is fully ate." You describe solutions that would need the help of the very governments. How genuine would they be to ensure that this is not happening when on the side there could be the perpetrators of the same? The reason why we always, you know, in this case, I turn the table on the government even though we know that in many cases they are the ones behind these things is because we believe that the government has the power, has the authority and their responsibility legally is on them. The power of access, the power of resources, the power of having access to confidential and intelligence information is something that is limited to the government and people in government and that is why even if they are the main suspects we have to ask when keep reminding them that it is their duty and it is truly their duty based on international law and most of the laws of these countries. That's Isha Sanusi, Amnesty International's country director in Nigeria. It is clear that African countries do not have enough vaccines to tackle the growing number of mPOCs cases. According to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4,000 cases were reported in the region in the past week alone. The continent's health body has repeated calls for vaccines which are yet to arrive in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the epicenter of the outbreak. So far, about 38,000 doses have been promised by the European Union and the United States, among other western countries. That's far less than the 10 million doses needed to contain the outbreak on the continent. African countries have themselves been slow to respond. However, dozens of health ministers and officials from the World Health Organization have been meeting in Congo to put together an emergency response to the crisis with vaccines being key to the strategy. Professor Dimier Ogohina is the president of the Nigerian Infectious Diseases Society and I've been speaking to him about mPOCs in Africa and what's being done to stop the spread of the virus. Professor, thank you and welcome to focus on Africa. So I'd like you to start by setting the stage voice for this conversation in the sense that we already know that the World Health Organization declared mPOCs a global health emergency. But that happened shortly after the Africa CDC had declared it a continental public health emergency. How are such declarations made and do they in some sort of way, you know, open up a kind of response or trigger a response to how the world sees the diseases of this scale? I think the question of the public or the emergency of international consign or continental security is very critical when you have a challenge, especially a public health threat that has the potential to spread to other countries that are within a continent or outside a continent. In the case of mPOCs, we have a new situation where there's an unprecedented spread, increasing number of cases and spread starting from the epicenter, which is the Democratic Republic of Congo. So this year, 24, we have seen an unprecedented increase in number of cases over 20,000 cases have been reported from January to date. And remarkably, it has affected most of the provinces in the DRC and also expanded to other Eastern African countries that have never reported mPOCs in the past. And this includes Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi. Also remarkable is the emergence of a new strain of declared one. The declared one is historically known to be more severe and cause more fatality than the declared two that caused the global outbreak in 2022. So there's an emergence of a new strain that is called "glade one bee." And for the first time in history, we are also observing that "glade one" is associated with sexual transmission. Sexual transmission was previously restricted to "glade two." So "glade one" is now associated with sexual transmission. And this sexual transmission has also been noticed in other parts of Africa. Also remarkable is the emergence of resurgence of mPOCs, "glade two mPOCs" in other parts of Africa, such as South Africa, Kuduva and other places. And with an associated increase in morbidity and mortality, especially in South Africa, where people with advanced HIV are dying. So on account of this, I believe the African CDC and the WHO decided to declare this public emergency just to ensure that we are vigilant and allowed to take proactive steps to see that this outbreak does not spread to other countries in Africa and all other countries in the globe, or does not cause another global outbreak with attendant morbidity and mortality. Right. So does this kind of declarations also mean that more resources could be allocated, because we are now talking about vaccines coming into the different African countries. Yeah. So this type of declaration is intended to ensure that everybody works collectively in solidarity to see that this issue is addressed. So there must, of course, be more ownership, more commitment by the countries that are most impacted, especially in the African country. And it also be also on the global partners and the countries in the global that are not as equally impacted as in Africa to also offer support. So that's the essence of this emergency. Professor, talking about resources, and you did mention earlier that the countries that are most affected need to also be taking responsibility in leading the response to this. The World Health Organization is seeking about $85 million or thereabouts in donor support over the next six months to help contain the outbreak of this virus. Where would these funds be coming from, looking at the different sort of partners that are willing to participate and help generate funding for the response to the epochs outbreak that we are facing now? I think what is important is the recognition that we did fund it. Without funding, we cannot address this problem that is currently ongoing in Africa. Of course, in Africa, we have competing challenges. We have resource constraints. We have issues of poverty. We have weak health systems. We have challenges of malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, cholera, and many other problems that we are competing with. And there are very limited resources for this to be addressed. We must recognize that everybody is a stakeholder. Whether you're in Africa or outside Africa, you must commit some resources. And of course, African countries must also be willing to pay a price and to sacrifice to see that we address this problem. Talking about the vaccine, then, as we stand now, African countries are waiting and some are starting to receive, like Nigeria, four vaccines from some of those global partners that you talked about, the so-called rich countries. Why is it that we have to be in this position, even looking at COVID, for example, we were in a similar position waiting for other countries to donate vaccines. Why do we have to find ourselves here again? Well, unfortunately, the way the world operates is that people are always a bit selfishness. What we call selfishness that relates to public health and how we handle issues of public health. National interest has become something that has significantly impacted on how we implement global solidarity and respond to public health threats. So even in situations where our level of threat is not as significant, we tend to hold medical countermeasures because we anticipate there may be problems in the future. Not knowing that neglecting a problem for a different country may ultimately be a danger to our own country. Also, having the competitive advantage to compete to get some of these medical countermeasures in. In fact, if there is a line for people to procure, Africa is always lasting the list. And unfortunately, we don't also have the resources here that they said that the single dose of the impulse vaccine is about 100 US dollars and you need two doses per person. Where will Africa get the resources for this? Of course, we can't lose sight of the fact that some African countries were a bit late in demanding for some of these medical countermeasures because several meetings have attended and there have been issues raised that African countries, some African countries have not directly demanded for some of these medical countermeasures. But at this junction, every African country is in need of these medical countermeasures. And we in Africa, indeed in every other continent, we must ensure that we grow, we invest in ourselves, we invest in research and development, and in self-determination, especially in science and medicine and healthcare so that we can't do a lot for our own indigenous and local solutions. Are you then profess a way of any specific plans that could be in place for to deliver this vaccine to the countries that have affected the most? Yeah, so in the African CDC, the WHO and other stakeholders are meeting and also deliberating to determine the best strategy to get these vaccines and to deploy these vaccines in an equitable manner such that we get to the higher risk target population. And these strategies are currently ongoing and I believe that we time it to be published. I'm also aware that the various countries are also developing their own individual national strategies and target groups to address this problem. How can this summit in the Congo? How can it deliver to the situation that we are talking about? So the summit in the Congo is focusing on research and development and ensuring that we bring together the stakeholders across Africa and beyond Africa to discuss on various ways to identify the gaps to address this problem of epochs. And done in such a way that we can avoid stigma and discrimination because stigma is a significant issue. So we expect that following this discussion, the continent will be more setting about prioritizing interventions that ought to be taken immediately for the short term and the long term. And we believe and we hope that this current challenge of epochs and we must implement those actions in a sustainable manner. A six month plan is a good, but what happens after six months? That's a question for all of us, especially all of us in Africa. Professor Dimee Ogoyna, the president of the Nigerian Infectious Diseases Society. This is focused on Africa from the BBC World Service. Hey, true crime fans. Tired of ads interrupting your gripping investigations? Good news. With Amazon music, you have access to the largest catalog of ad-free top podcasts included with your prime membership. After all, ads shouldn't be the scariest thing about true crime. To start listening, download the Amazon music app for free or go to amazon.com/addfree true crime. That's amazon.com/addfree true crime to catch up on the latest episodes without the ads. Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds. Recently, I asked Mint Mobile's legal team if big wireless companies are allowed to raise prices due to inflation. They said yes. And then when I asked if raising prices technically violates those onerous to your contracts, they said, "What the f*ck are you talking about? You insane Hollywood f*ck." So to recap, we're cutting the price of Mint Unlimited from $30 a month to just $15 a month. Give it a try at Mint Mobile.com/Switch. $45 up for three months plus taxes and fees, promoting for new customers for limited time. Unlimited more than 40 gigabytes per month slows. Full turns at Mint Mobile.com. Next, to Tanzania. Nearly five years ago, it was almost impossible to find a female stand-up comedian in the East African country. The landscape, however, is changing and the laugh industry is now attracting more female performers and an audience that previously lacked representation. Despite gender biases faced by women, emerging female comedians in Tanzania are finding success in a new era of comedy driven by social media. One of those emerging names is Sakina Chandu, who got into comedy in a way one could never imagine listening. I had no previous interest in comedy up until mid last year when I went out on a very interesting date with a man who I had nothing in common with. He worked in finance, I didn't have any money. He had a good relationship with his dad, my dad is dead. As you can imagine, we didn't have much to talk about on that first date. He was telling me about how he'd make a really good comedian, how everyone says he's funny. I didn't say the appeal, but I said, "Okay, bet." Our second date was at a punchline comedy club. I spent the entire show heckling the comedians and making a covered laugh. After that, I was approached by the owners of the club and they invited me to an open mic. Do you want to tell us how that story went then with him? I dropped the guy I took up comedy and we lived happily over after. Okay, sounds really interesting. So talk to us then about the type of comedy that you like and the kind of subjects you cover because you've just sort of entered the industry having started just last year. Because I'm a female comic, I can stand on stage and I've got a whole new scope about things to talk about because of, you know, ex-boyfriends, relatability, relationships. I feel like I want a wider scope than the male comedians. The thing I like about comedy is that across the board, a lot of things are universally accepted. It doesn't matter where you're performing. I could be performing in the Philippines or in Saudi Arabia or even in the UK and I could talk about the same topic and everyone would laugh because it's universal. But on that same spectrum, there are some things that are just universally not accepted depending on the country. In Tanzania, what are some of those topics that, you know, comedians, including yourself, tend to shine away from and why? I don't know about most comedians but I stay away from politics. I stay away from anything controversial because I'm only just starting out. So I prefer to keep my slate clean. And how does the audience then receive performances from female comedians? Are they popular? Do you find that your work is quite well accepted or it doesn't really matter female or male if you're funny, they still give you the same kind of reception? I'll be honest with you. I feel like female comedians definitely get a little bit more critique based on what they talk about. So because of the general gender bias that's across the board, it's not just Tanzania. So I do think it also depends on the topic. So talk to me about your first night. You know that you went on stage after this date that you described. Sorry, I'm so happy that you're asking me all of these because I've been memorizing this since the first time I did my first show. So context of this story is I have an older sister in the UK. Shout out to her because she basically raised me. She is my closest friend and when I was chickening out that first night, she's the one that called me and went, you need to show that up and you need to show him that you can be funny too. Go on stage and perform. So huge ups to her and for moral support, her ex-husband, who is like a brother to me, showed up and a few other friends. And I went on stage and we were given two minutes to make the crowd laugh. And I made a joke about my birth story, which if I had time out, go off on a tangent about, but it's quite funny. So when my mother was in labor with me, she was having a tough time. So the nurse recommended taking a shot of castor oil. Now castor oil is a natural laxative. Because of that, I came out with a crappy attitude, mental constipation and verbal diarrhea. It's quite a harsh way to describe yourself, don't you think? I mean, I suppose within the whole point of being a comedian is self-critique. Another joke that I think the crowd liked from that first night is I was talking about C-section babies and how if you're a C-section baby, you did not have a birthday you had an eviction date. Yeah, makes sense. Actually, yeah, you didn't decide. Most likely not decide. You don't have a birthday, you have a happy eviction date. This is the day you were kicked out. First ever apartment, congratulations. I hope all those kids that were born that way don't feel bad about that. So my niece was actually a C-section baby and she loves that joke. Where do you see this industry going in the future, especially with more female comedians now coming up in Tanzania? It's a relatively smaller industry compared to others, maybe in the region or the continent. What do you see as a future with people like yourselves now coming in and really pushing for it? I'll be honest with you, I've always wanted to visit the comedy clubs in Nairobi. Like punchline Nairobi is supposed to be a huge deal and I've always wanted to go hashtag fund me BBC. But as far as Tanzania is concerned, I think it's going quite well because comedians you've never even heard of come up on that stage and make a name for themselves and 10-15 years from now, they're going to be the next diamond platinum for all I know or the next Alikiba. I do think the industry is going places and I do think that there's going to be more scope for more comedians. We're going to have more comedy clubs. We're going to have more English speaking comedy clubs as well because punchline is the only English speaking club that I know of. But something else that I was just thinking of, in terms of pay and just being able to leave off your craft, are there differences between how much a male comedian might earn and how much you might earn while doing the same thing? We get paid equally across the board so I really like the inclusivity there but because it's such a niche industry, I was told do not expect comedy to be your lifeline, do not quit your day job for comedy because you get paid in experience, you get paid in learning. Most of us don't do it for the money because you'll starve but we do it because we want the artistic experience. We want to be able to go on stage and speak our minds and talk about things that other people would find pretty traumatic but we find very funny. Truthfully being a comedian has helped my confidence. It's helped the way I conduct myself in life, the way I treat other people. It's opened so many doors. This would not have happened had it not been for that one really bad date last year. So I want us to end but I need to ask you one more question about what you think is driving the growth of comedy in Tanzania from a consumption perspective because previously you'd have all these major TV shows but now we have social media coming in platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram coming in. What is that doing to sort of the kind of audience that you get and how far you could take this? I feel like it's a good thing that we're having these smaller platforms rise up and empower the regular person. You go on stage and you see Dave Chappelle and you see Kevin Hart and you think I could do that. And now you suddenly have a means to be able to actually do that and post about it on the internet, which I think is really cool. From a consumer point of view I do think that live shows like this or TikToks are going to become the newer source of entertainment compared to regular TV and media. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you so much because I am really excited because no one's going to believe me if I say, hey, I just got off a call with BBC Africa. Nobody's going to believe me. Like I'm going to need tangible evidence. It's going to be there in plenty. I assure you that. This is huge. Thank you again. Sakina Chandoor, the stand-up comedian from Tanzania. Focus on Africa was produced by Bell Hassan, Yvette Togramaria, Stefano Carake, and Sunita Naha in London. Susan Gashouhi was in Aairobi. Patricia Whitehorn was in charge and our technical producer was Jonathan Greer. Our editors are Andrea Lombard and Alice Moudengi. I'm Charles Gitonga. Goodbye for now. Imagine the softest sheets you've ever felt. Now imagine them getting even softer over time. That's what you'll feel with Bolin Branch's best-selling signature sheets in 100% organic cotton. In a recent customer survey, 96% replied that Bolin Branch sheets get softer with every wash. Start getting your best night's sleep in sheets that get softer and softer for years to come. Try their sheets with a 39 guarantee. Plus get 15% off your first order at Bolin Branch.com code buttery. Exclusion's apply. See site for details. What's up, y'all? Janice Torres here. And I'm Austin Hankowitz. We're the hosts of Mind the Business, Small Business Success Stories, a podcast presented by iHeartRadio's Ruby Studios and Intuit QuickBooks. Join us as we speak with small business owners about the tools they use to turn their ideas into success. From finding that initial spark of entrepreneurship to organizing payments and invoices, we've got you covered. So follow and listen to Mind the Business, Small Business Success Stories on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.