Focus on Africa

Inside the Sudan war with the Sudanese army

The leader of the Sudanese army has told UN General Assembly in New York, that a peace deal depends on the paramilitary Rapid Support Force laying down their arms. The army has also launched a major offensive in the capital Khartoum, targeting areas in the hands of RSF. The BBC's Barbara Plett has got rare access to Sudan. She's accompanied the army to some areas and reports on the how the war is devastating lives.

Also, was there an attempted coup in Benin, and by whom?

And the remains of South African anti apartheid freedom fighters who died whilst in exile, are returned home for proper burial.

Presenter: Audrey Brown Producers: Victor Sylver and Rob Wilson in London Technical Producer: Chris Ablakwa Senior Journalist: Karnie Sharp Ediros: Alice Muthengi and Andre Lombard

Broadcast on:: 27 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

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. Explaining football to the friend who's just there for the nachos, hard. Tailgating from home like a pro with snacks and drinks everyone will love, any easy win. And with Instacart helping deliver the snack time MVPs to your door, you're ready for the game in as fast as 30 minutes. So you never miss a play or lose your seat on the couch or have to go head to head for the last chicken wing. Shop Game Day faves on Instacart and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three gross reorders. Offer valid for a limited time, other fees and terms apply. 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 that 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 from payment equivalent to $15 per month, new customers on first three month plan only, taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes of details. Hello, I'm Audrey Brown and today in Focus on Africa, we're getting to know a bit more about Benin. A quiet country in a rather noisy neighborhood on our continent. And we're talking about the repatriation of the remains of the people who fought for freedom in South Africa and died in foreign countries. It's been a long wait for their families. There were a lot of friends IIT waiting for our loved ones to arrive. How long have you been waiting, Manlova? I would say forever. Our father left 1962 and then he died in Zimbabwe in 1989. Yeah, so I would say the family has been in perpetual wait since 1989 when he died. It's Friday the 27th of September. First we go to Sudan to report on a continuing offensive by the army against the rapid support forces. The ongoing fighting has displaced more than 10 million people and led to the deaths of up to 150,000 others. Hunger is ever-present, especially in the refugee camps. The fighting began in April last year after falling out between the Sudan army and a powerful unit of that army, the rapid support forces under General Hemeti, or to give him his full name, Muhammad Hamdan Danaloum. There appears to be no end in sight to the fighting or the suffering. The head of state, General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, has been in New York to address the United Nations General Assembly this week. You've all witnessed the crimes and violations and atrocities committed by these rebels targeting the Sudanese people and the Sudanese state. Now while General Burhan has been addressing other world leaders, witnesses reported intense aerial bombardments and heavy fighting on Thursday as army troops crossed two key bridges over the river Nile, which had separated government-controlled areas in Omdurman, from the regions controlled by the rapid support forces. I've been speaking to the BBC's Barbara Platt Asha, who has seen the effects of the fighting in Sudan firsthand. Well, we took the road to Omdurman from Port Sudan, which is on the coast. That was a two-day trip and it was heavily monitored. I think we must have stopped at least 20 checkpoints because we had 20 copies of our permit and we ran out at some point and it wasn't always taken from us, so it was more than 20 checkpoints, so very heavily monitored road. The city itself, you know, parts of it feel quite normal. You wouldn't necessarily know there was a war going on, except for the sound of the sporadic artillery fire, but the shops are open, there are markets, there's food, they look well supplied, but inflation is really through the roof. The exchange rate now is something like 2,500 Sudanese pounds to the dollar. Before the war, it was 400, so that just gives you an idea. And many people, even if there are goods there, just can't afford them. But then, as you go towards the Nile and the army took us there, you enter areas closer to the front line and there you have this mass destruction that you've probably seen on television pictures. Every building is bombed or full of bullet holes or torched, because these are the areas that the RSF occupied for several months. And then in March and April, and I think May also, there was a real pushback by the army in offensive to push them out earlier this year. So that area is pretty much uninhabited. Also, the RSF looted everything, so you see people's belongings all over the streets and also inside the houses that I looked into, everything is turned upside down. There were bits of life coming back, Audrey. We did see some shops that were opening and it's the rubble. We actually ran into a family that was driving back to their house to have a look, but it's almost like two different parts of the city. One part feels like it could be normal life, except you know what isn't, and the other part is really just kind of a ghost town. So General Abda Al-Fattah Al-Barhan is in New York at the General Assembly, so there's a diplomatic offensive going on. But we've been hearing that the war has also gone up a notch as well. Well, there have been attempts led by the US that picked up in August again to try and end hostilities, but also to do whatever possible to open up humanitarian access and protect civilians. You know, it really doesn't look as if there'll be a ceasefire anytime soon. The de facto leader of Sudan, General Abda Al-Barhan, has spoken at the UN General Assembly, and he said he was open to any real talks to end the war, but he made it clear that there wouldn't be a ceasefire unless the RSF withdraws from the areas it's occupied, the towns, the cities, the homes, the roads, so displaced people could return. And unless that happens, he says there will not be a ceasefire, and certainly the army is on the offensive now in Khartoum. The RSF leader, General Mohamed Hamdan Daggalo, also addressed the UN General Assembly in a recorded speech. He repeated previous pledges that he was open to a nationwide truce that would allow delivery of aid. But you can see on the ground that the RSF has continued its own offensives this month, especially on the city of Al-Fashar in North Darfur state. So maybe there could be some progress on lifting restrictions for the flow of aid, even though the fighting goes on. We did hear about two aid convoys while we've been here. Maybe that could deal with the worst part of the hunger crisis, but the crisis is fueled by the conflict. So unless that ends, it will go on. We've been reporting about hunger and hunger created by the war and even pockets of famine. What do you know about that? Well, I mean, coming to Sudan, I knew that the numbers were shocking, that more than half the population, some 26 million people are facing acute hunger, that some 1 million are on the brink of starvation, that famine has been declared in an IDP camp in northern Darfur. And that malnutrition is a big problem. The worst areas, of course, as far as we know, are in RSF held territory. And we were in army controlled territory. But even here, you know, Audrey, it was pretty devastating. We visited two malnutrition wards, one in Port Sudan and one in Omdurman. Both of them were packed, at least two women with their children per bed. The one in Omdurman had just been expanded to almost twice its size, because there were so many cases. And so you had these women with their children in different stages of recovery. I went into one room where you had what they call severely acute malnourished children. There was a little girl in there. She looks quite young, but I was told she was two years old, very emaciated. So I saw quite a lot of babies in very bad condition. You know, there is a baseline of malnutrition in Sudan anyway, because of poverty. But that has been made worse by the war, by the mass displacement, by the health system being so damaged. And again, especially in RSF territories, because they're not getting aid supplies coming through. In Omdurman, if the children could get to the hospital and also in Port Sudan, if they were able to get there, they were able to get treatment. You were in army held territory. What do we know about what's happening in RSF territory? Actually, we had an unexpected encounter. We went to a crossing point on a desert road outside Omdurman, where people come over from RSF territory to army held areas. And some of them are fleeing. And that's what I was expected to speak to people who were trying to escape. But we found some women who come to the big market at that crossing point to shop, because prices are cheaper, and then they go back. So I spent some time talking to them. I asked them what it was like. They said they RSF made them pay at all the checkpoints. They talked about the difficulties. They said their men couldn't leave the house, because if they were, they would be beaten or they'd be picked up. And you'd be forced to pay to get them back. And they basically said they'd become the providers for that reason. And then I said, well, what about the women? And then they'd been very chatty to that point. And then it sort of petered out a bit. And then all of a sudden, one woman just burst out like a dam had broke. And she basically said, why aren't you helping us? Why is the world not helping us? What have we done? And then she went on to say, there are so many women here who've been raped. They don't talk about it. But what difference would it make anyway? You, she said, pointing at me, in your world, if your child would go out and possibly the implication was possibly be abducted or raped, because she'd been talking about girls that the RSF may keep for five or six days. She said, would you just leave her? Wouldn't you go look for her? But what can we do? We can't do anything. Nothing is in our hands. Nothing is in our hands. As she was talking, the women around her started crying. And her mother, she pointed at her mother. Her mother was sitting on the ground with her head in her hand, just sobbing. It was an extraordinary moment, really. Just such a window into despair and desperation. I was really quite shaken by it. And then we also saw them pick up their bundles of the food they'd brought and walk back. And you just think, my goodness, what, how can one, you know, I just didn't have words. And after that, there were a number of other women who opened up about what they had seen and experienced, including a woman we spoke to in the market, who now lives in army held territory. But she said she had been raped by RSF fighters earlier in the war. And she had been raped to save her daughters, basically, because the men were demanding her daughters. And she put them behind her and said, well, you'll have to take me. And so the girls could escape. So quite harrowing stories. They're all in this one location, a real insight into what life is like in areas that we can't access. In a case of asking the right question to the right people. Well, in a case of somebody just, I think, you know, I felt like there was a damn bursting. Like the moment was right for this woman. She was so, she sort of come to the end of her tether in a way. Like, here she's talking to the international media and the women aren't really saying what they're going through. And she just kind of, just a torrent of words, Audrey. And it was, yes, it was she who really opened my eyes, I think. And then the women's reactions to her and just, to the conversation definitely changed after that. And yeah, a number of times she said, why isn't the world helping us? Like, what have we done? Why aren't you, why aren't you coming to our aid, basically? Speaking of the world helping, from what you've seen and what you've heard, do you see any easing of the situation to bring an end to this war? Well, there have been these attempts led by the US that picked up in August again. And they were clearly aimed at ending the hostilities coming up with a ceasefire. But they also tried to be practical, you know, to find practical solutions for humanitarian access, for civilian protection and so on. There was some movement on that because both the Army and the RSF had been restricting aid convoys and they managed to get an agreement that these restrictions would be lifted. Although that is also not moving all that smoothly, there's still quite a lot of bureaucracy. We did hear about some aid trucks getting access while we were there. But it's not the large number that needs to go through. If no measures are taken, like, serious measures to really pump aid into the country and through the country and across the barriers that exist, then that is very bad news. That's the BBC's Barbara Pledasha in Sudan. Our next story made the news headlines earlier this week. And I don't know about you, but if I were not in the business of following events in Africa, it would have escaped my notice. It concerns Benin, three men, including a former minister, a security guard entrusted with the safety of the president, Patrick Stallone, that is, and another man, said to be a friend of the president, were arrested on suspicion of plotting a coup. The state prosecutor in Benin said further investigations are being carried out to identify further suspects. Benin is a small country and doesn't usually make the news, unlike its noisier neighbors, Nigeria, Niger, and Burkina Faso. So news of a possible coup prompted us to find out a bit more about the country. Erwe Akinocho is director of the Centre for Research and Opinion Polls in Kortonu, the capital of Benin. One of Benin is a small country of West Africa, far too far, country, and coastal, also country that he got with the independence since 1960. And the capital city is Benin, he's quite normal. And the population size is a greater than a million of people. Okay, so we're talking about Benin today, because there was an attempted coup, apparently. Tell us a little bit about the political history of Benin. Is it a very stable country? Well, it had been since, I think, the '90s, where we do our transition to democracy. It had been quite stable. Before, we have a lot of schools ongoing. We have one of the countries that have the most school in West Africa. But I think it had been stable since 1919. So it's quite stable, I would say, right now. And we have been all surprised by that attempt of a coup issue, how you call it, the future. Confound that it was the case, really. Okay, so we're not clear yet, quite whether it was a coup or not. But tell us the political context of Benin. Is it a country where you have democratic elections, where people can express their political dissent openly, and where you have a strong opposition and strong institutions? Well, elections have been happening since we came back to democracy in 1991. But I think the recent years have been a bit skeptical in Benin, because the actual ruling president has decided to change the landscape of the political arena by reshaping how political parties have to be. So they have some deep reform that has been going on. It has not been approved by everyone. So the opposition party feel like they have been not consulted as in that process. Unfortunately, that created some potential during the past two elections. But I think the president has expressed why he's joined those reform. People may not agree with him. He has the majority at the National Assembly. And we're able to call those reform. So we will see. But yeah, it has been some struggle in the recent years in the political arena. And of course, Patrick Dalom has said that he won't stand for a third term. He's going to serve out his two terms. And then in 2026, there will be elections without him, which is quite unusual in a way for many presidents, because there are always, it seems, maneuvers for them to try and extend their tenure in office, right? Well, that's what we are used to in Franco from Africa. But I think we know that we are seeing that now we get cool in the region. I think some of these people are also thinking twice before trying to change the Constitution. But I think he's a few years now. He told everyone that they're not standing for a third term. When will you be happy that he can change his world? And yeah, so now we are waiting to see. Benet is in a region, a rough neighborhood. Countries that are very familiar with Coos, Burkina Faso, for instance. How did it withstand this tendency for Coos to happen around it? And it didn't have Coos reported or Coos attempts reported until this one recently. What made it cool with it? I would say that it's Coos. I think that for a long time, the political arena was quite strong. And people were trying to play generally in the political arena. I don't know if they still have changed, but I feel so talented. Power, even the way she came in power was quite big. I think the issue here is that we will say that you are cool too. But I feel very true that we've faced with that the way of democratization. It has been quite smooth up to now. So states have changed. And I don't know if that's why we are hearing about the intent of Coos. But they only have been quite, I think, professional since the 1990s. Tell me about what we know of the reported Coos attempts. What are the details that you know? We don't know much about it. I think the prosecutor says that there are three people that were arrested. For one, Mr. Omechi, who were arrested with the chief of the federal security guard, where he was trying to give him like roughly 1.5 billion of CFA. That money was back in the car and he was leading to that officer. So we are waiting for more information. To know really what is going on. And it seems that former minister was also doing that on the behalf of one of the big train of the president. I don't think that is eligible for who want to be a candidate for the coming presidential. Well, I think the president was saying that they need to wait for the final political party to open. We raised for cleaner candidates, but she already opened the race. And that cost the former minister of the position of the government. So I think there is some struggle within the ruling party at the moment. I think that's what we are seeing as a result. So you're saying that it's a power struggle rather than a coup, because you sounded very skeptical at the beginning. When we started talking, say that it doesn't quite sound like a coup. So in what I'm seeing right now within Photoshop that we have available, it seems to be more a power struggle within the related party than a character of who will it. But we don't have enough detail. And I think the case is with the judiciary. And so I think we will have more information in the coming days. And that can inform us more about how serious was that. So at the moment, there are three men. One is a government minister, and another was a man in charge of President Patrick Stallone's security, and a friend of the president, a businessman, Olivier Roboco. Those three men have been sort of named. And are they under arrest at the moment for being coup plotters? Or are they out and not in danger of being arrested? From what I heard in that victory where I arrested, the security guard was released, the two-order remaining booklet, and the former minister will make it remaining in prison for now. Would you say that, you know, you have a free press, you have strong institutions, you have a strong opposition in Benin? Certainly, I think we are getting more strong institutions. I will say that everything is doing great, but change our vehicles back to what I would say. And I think freedom of press, we are not doing very well when it's come to that. And it also the same when it's come to opposition, even though it's getting better because of opposition as stronger, they started from the last election and they were able to at least have the number of seats in the national assembly that prevents the puts for voting party to change their constituents for instance. So I think these are getting better. I think these are moving in the right direction. Thank you so much for talking to us. That's been really interesting. Thank you. All right, then. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. That's Erwe Aquinocho, director of the Center for Research and Opinion Polls in Benin. This is Focus in Africa from the BBC World Service. Explaining football to the friend who's just there for the nachos, hard. Tailgating from home like a pro with snacks and drinks everyone will love, any easy win. And with Instacart helping deliver the snack time MVPs to your door, you're ready for the game in as fast as 30 minutes. So you never miss a play or lose your seat on the couch or have to go head to head for the last chicken wing. Shop game day faves on Instacart and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three grocery orders. Offer valid for a limited time. Other fees in terms apply. 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 three 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. South Africa continues to shoulder the legacy of apartheid, the system of white supremacist domination in many different ways. It's there in the long persistence of Black poverty and inequality, something the people of South Africa won the government of the African National Congress to work harder to eradicate. But thousands of men and women left their families behind to fight that system of white domination from countries surrounding South Africa. They left, not knowing if they'd ever see their loved ones again. Very many of them didn't. They were bombed by agents of the white minority government. Others died in combat. There were poisonings. And there were those who just disappeared. No one knows what happened to them. One of those who was lucky enough to survive and return was the then president of the African National Congress, Oliver Tambo. He had left South Africa in the early 60s and lived in London, unable to return until 1990, when the ANC and other liberation movements were unbanned. Here he is speaking in 1985 about the decision to leave. It was difficult because of one thing, one had not lived in exile before. And you were working away from your people, from enormous surroundings, even from the members of the organization. You were most of the time alone. It was very difficult, but you are sustained by your conviction that what you are doing will yield results, that it cannot fail or ever difficult it is. Oliver Tambo died in 1993 in a South Africa that would hold its first democratic elections the following year in 1994. In the intervening years, the families of those who didn't make it back have been struggling to get the remains of their loved ones repatriated. This week, that process began for the relatives of 49 freedom fighters who had died in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Ambassador Rafael Faranisi, Secretary for Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage in Zimbabwe, did a ceremonial handover to the South African authorities at the airport in Harare. Among those taking part in the proceedings was Manmoba Kubeka, son of Edwin Makouti, one of the founding members of the PAC, or the Pan-Africanist Congress, which is a breakaway organization from the African National Congress, which, like the ANC, had also fought against apartheid. Manmoba. Hello, Audrey. Guinjani. Diapila, Guinjani, Audrey. Aye, nam. Diapila, Konte. How is everything going today? Everything is going fine, relaxed. We had a very tired day yesterday. There were a lot of anxiety waiting for our loved ones to arrive. Yeah, I can imagine. How long have you been waiting, Manmoba? I would say forever. Our father left in 1962, and then he died in Zimbabwe in 1989. Yeah, so I would say the family has been in a special way since 1989 when he died. Yeah. Tell us about your father. Who was he in the party in the Pan-Africanist Congress? Yes, he held several positions in the party. At some stage, he was a secretary for information and publicity. He was also head of publications which were produced, and he was most of the time the editor of those publications of the party, like for instance, Azane News was the bi-monthly of the PAC, and he made sure whether he produced it alone or with other contributors, but most of the time, it will be him who basically was the spokesman of the party. Then at another time, he was secretary for defense because he was a trained revolutionary. Basically, he was responsible for the multitudes who were in the camps as to who's going for training in which country and who's going to the front. That is, the front is to South Africa, to be prepared, to get into the country and fight. But mostly for him, the pen was stronger than it was, yes, he was a good writer. He was a really good writer. He was a good thing. I could say the policies and the positions that the PAC had to put to our supporters, to the international community, he was most of the time responsible for them, and the seminal documents that, for instance, he produced what was called the new road to revolution is a book that he developed with people in the camp, and he was the editor. I've read some of those books because I was one of the people who was back in South Africa in the 1980s before the democratic breakthrough in 1990 and 1994. I'm familiar with some of the things that your father wrote. So tell us about what it's been like for you, bringing him back home to be buried. Yes, to me, it was a really, really feel good. I feel so good, and very much elated, that so far this has happened. So I went to Zimbabwe with other people, other families, and we visited. It was me and my younger brother David. We visited his grave, and that of our other leader, John Yachippo Kella, who was the president of the PAC. So we went to kneel behind that is in front of and then, of course, had some ritual speaking to him and also to our leader, John Yachippo Kella, and it was a really fulfilling moment. We spent three days in Zimbabwe and Monday, that's two weeks ago, came back and now the process unfolded. Yesterday, as we waited for the plane to come from Zimbabwe, we're supposed to have arrived, doesn't get around three o'clock, but then there was this delay for three hours. But to myself, I said, even if it could be the next day, we will wait. And when it happened, yeah, we're so enthralled by seeing the plane coming down and the later on, when they were taking the conference, the soldiers taking the conference to the cars. Apparently, my father was in the first eight cars when they were taking to the military hospital. You know, I had them calling my father Edwin Lizzolo Margoti. Yeah, that was exciting. What does it mean for people like you to have the remains of people who died in exile, died in foreign countries, never saw freedom in South Africa for them to come back and be reburied among their people? Yeah, there's a manifold, you know, of the same feelings, you know, you know, you have people, you know, who from time to time were harassed by their special branch, you know, from time to time when they are members, family members were outside. A lot of people from time to time, they'll be in a state of shock, you know, when the police come to their house, sometimes early in the wee hours, three o'clock in the morning, you know, and the children got to go to school and you can imagine if they would go to school after a state of shock. A lot of people, you know, develop depression and loneliness, especially our mothers, missing our fathers, and of course, the children too, you know, some of them, they became people who, from time to time were panicky and others developed anger and resentment, you know, you can imagine all that, you know, so what it means now, finding that closure, I think we're going to find closure, a lot of people are going to find solace and people will begin to be happy and also, people will unite around the process of repairing their own people, you know, and it's so good for the country. It's good when you see the government looking caring, you know, if you look at how basically the army, you know, and all other departments putting their heads together makes this a success. Today marks a very special day in many respects as we embark on a journey to pay special tribute and honor our liberation towards who laid down their lives in the fight against apartheid and colonialism. It was marvelous. Okay then, thank you very, very much. Thank you so much for talking to us about this. I can imagine that it's it's sad, but also joyous, right? Absolutely, yeah, it's mixed feelings. Yeah, absolutely. I wish I was there. Thank you, Andre. Thank you so much. My grandfather also died in exile, but he died after liberation. After liberation, your father certainly would have known him. Yeah, I'm sure my father might have known him. Okay, thank you very much. You are welcome, Madri. Thank you. Bye bye. Bye bye. That's man MOBA COBECA, son of Edwin Makoti, one of the liberation struggle heroes whose remains have been repatriated from Zimbabwe to finally be laid to rest in South Africa. Focus on Africa was pulled together by Victor Silver and Rob Wilson here in London. Carney Sharp was our senior journalist. Chris Ablakwa was our technical producer. Andre Lombard and Alice Midengi are our editors. I'm Audrey Brown. We'll talk again next time. Good taste is easy to spot, but hard to pin down. You know it when you see it. And in today's culture, there's no greater signifier of taste than the car you drive. You want something sophisticated but not stodgy during yet classic, approachable, but with an air of opulence. That's where the Range Rover Evoke comes in. The reductive exterior is an elegant expression of Range Rover DNA and the chiseled taillight graphics give the evoke a sense of motion even at Stanstil. Explore the Range Rover Evoke at Land Rover USA dot com. I'm Gabriel Gatehouse and from BBC Radio 4 this is series two of The Coming Storm. There's a divide in American politics between those who think democracy is in peril and those who think it's already been subverted, hollowed out from the inside. As America prepares to elect its next president, we go through the looking glass into a world where nothing is as it seems and the institutions of the state are a facade. Listen, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. [BLANK_AUDIO]