Focus on Africa
Lebanon conflict: A reporter’s witness account.
Lebanon conflict: As Israel continues to attack, we learn the plight of foreigners stranded there
We assess the state of security in Mali following last month's deadly attack in the capital, Bamako
And outrage in Egypt after a video showing possible sexual harassment by male doctors goes viral. A medical association vows to investigate.
Presenter: Charles Gitonga Producers: Bella Hassan, Yvette Twagiramariya and Nyasha Michelle in London. With Frenny Jowi in Nairobi. Senior Producer: Paul Bakibinga Technical Producer: Jonathan Greer Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi
- Broadcast on:
- 02 Oct 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. It took a lifetime to find the person you want to marry. Finding the perfect engagement ring is a lot easier. At BlueNeil.com you can find or design the ring you've always dreamed of with help from BlueNeil's jewelry experts who are on hand 24/7 to answer questions and the ease and convenience of shopping online. For a limited time, get $50 off your purchase of $500 or more with code Listen@BlueNeil.com. That's $50 off with code Listen@BlueNeil.com. 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 Mint Mobile.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 in detail. Hello, I'm Charles Guitonga and here's what's coming up for you on this edition of Focus on Africa. We'll hear from people in Mali who escaped a deadly September attack in Bamako. What's the country doing to guarantee citizens of their security? It was really sad and difficult to digest, but I think that all this can be explained by the lack of youth employment. Otherwise, if young people work, they can meet their needs and avoid being recruited by these people. Young people join because of the money. We ask the authorities to look for solutions to avoid this by giving work to children. And authorities in Egypt are investigating two doctors who appeared in a viral video allegedly admitting to sexually harassing female patients. There's an ongoing investigation addressing this issue because it's a very serious issue. And our policy in the Egyptian Medical Center that we have zero tolerance to these types of offenses. It's Wednesday the 2nd of October. First, we go to Lebanon. Live from London, this is BBC News. Exchanges of fire continue on the Israel, Lebanon border. A day after Iran launches a wave of missiles into Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu pledged to punish Iran. As we've all been hearing in the news, Lebanon is now engulfed in war. Israel has launched an invasion of southern Lebanon after two weeks of attacks, which Lebanese authorities say have killed more than 1,000 people and forced up to a million to flee their homes. The Israeli ground operation against Hezbollah was launched just days after an airstrike that killed the leader of the Iran-backed militant group Hassan Nasrallah. While Israel and Hezbollah have a long history of conflict, the war in Gaza has ignited months of deadly cross-border fighting. Caught in the middle of this escalating conflict are African students and workers in Beirut, Lebanon's capital city. Many of them are there on scholarship programs or as domestic workers. We've spoken to some of those Africans stranded in Lebanon about their harrowing experiences. But first, let's turn to Sally Nabil, BBC's reporter in Beirut, to get more insight into the situation. It's pretty tense, actually. Israeli airstrikes have hardly stopped over the past few days, especially in the southern suburbs of Beirut. And we could hear the airstrikes from here from central Beirut. I've been to Daha'a, or the southern suburb of the capital. And I've seen, first hand, the large scale of the damage around the area. Many buildings have been partially or totally reduced to rubble. You can see cars smashed. The people are pretty worried and concerned about what the coming hours and days will have for them. I spoke to one of them residents and he told me that when the Israel is issue a warning asking residents to evacuate their buildings, ten minutes later, the airstrikes begin. So they don't really have room to leave. So this is why the people are pretty concerned. If things are going to escalate this way, many lives will be at risk. More displacement will take place. Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister already said that Lebanon is facing an unprecedented displacement. More than a million people have left home. And if you have a walk around Beirut, you'd see people sitting in the street bearing the cold weather at night. They are not getting much aid. They don't have enough food. I remember one lady who has been sitting around in the street in central Beirut, telling me, "I just want to have a shower. I've been out in the street for nearly five days." And now that the Israelis have announced starting ground incursions, things are expected to get worse. They have said that the ground operation will be limited and precise. But at the same time, no one can really predict how things are going to unfold. I mean, the Israelis have been hitting and Hezbollah have been firing rockets into Israel as well. Hezbollah officials said that we are ready to face any potential ground incursion by the Israelis. And now after Iranian rockets have been fired into Israel, there are fears that Israel is going to respond to Iran in Lebanese territory. So things are developing by the hour and it's hardly to predict what's going to happen next. Yeah, so the locals are quite... you've described how they are coping with this very horrible and fast-moving events. How about the foreigners, especially Africans that are working in Beirut and Lebanon in general? Many of them are staying in the street right now. I've seen many of them in large numbers, really Africans, have been working in houses that have been hit or that have been threatened by Israeli air strikes. They are staying out in the streets and again, they are not getting much aid because it's mainly volunteers and local NGOs here who have been helping out. So many people are complaining that there isn't enough supplies provided to them. But I'm just wondering from what you can see on ground, especially for Africans, do you see people that sort of have a sense of direction of how they can go back to their countries during these times? Not at all. I mean, yesterday, for example, the Beirut airport was shut down for two hours because of the Iranian missiles or rockets fired into Israel. So things were getting really serious and dangerous. So if the airport is to be shut down temporarily, for example, what's the way out for these people? But so far, there don't seem to be a plan in place for them. Everybody seems to be overwhelmed and taken aback by the speed with which events are unfolding. That is the BBC's Salina Bill reporting from Beirut. Many Africans living in Lebanon have described the harsh reality of life in a war zone, where the sounds of bombs and gunfire have become a constant backdrop. We spoke to Yulita Jarop, a Kenyan domestic worker in Lebanon, about what life has been like for her over the past few days. We are now living in fear. We are so worried. We can't sleep well because the explosions happens at night. During the day, we do our normal activities as usual. But from this time and over the night, this is where the problem becomes. So we sleep in fear. Yeah, things have changed, not like before. Each and every time we hear, watching the news, and everyone is scared of them, not like before. Before they would say, "It's just the sound barrier. It's an aeroplane." But for now, it's the reality. It's the explosion. So we watch news until late at night. We live in fear, but there's no other option. They are saying things will be better. Now the Kenyan government has urged its nationals in Lebanon to register for evacuation. Here is Yulita again sharing her plans to leave Beirut and explaining that she only has received help from her family. I'm speaking with them. In fact, they are the one who booked my ticket, my first ticket, and the second ticket because they want me back home. So we speak each and every time. They want to check on me if the situation is still safe or anything else happened. We are communicating here, worried. They have nothing to do. They are trying to make calls with the numbers that they were given by the by the government of Kenya, which is the embassy in Kuwait. They are trying all their means to see me back, but it's a there's no way. That Yulita Jarop, who's among those stranded in Lebanon. Next to Mali. We all feel the impacts of the security crisis, old young traders or non traders. We pray to God that he puts an end to the situation with very serious consequences for everyone. It is not a question of religion. It is simply an aggression because few of these people pray. They are followers of Satan. The solution for us is understanding the populations must help the soldiers. Well, there are a lot of consequences because our children are dying. Look what happened very recently to the Africa Tower. I myself sell in the area and I found myself caught in the process. It was really sad and difficult to digest. But I think that all this can be explained by the lack of youth employment. Otherwise, if young people work, they can meet their needs and avoid being recruited by these people. Young people join because of the money. We ask the authorities to look for solutions to avoid this by giving work to children. The voices of residents who narrowly escaped a recent attack in Bamako, Mali's capital, which claimed the lives of more than 70 people. Many more were injured. This was the first attack in the city since 2015 and it was directed at military bases. An al-Qaeda-linked group called Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam, while Muslimin, all JNIM for short, claimed responsibility. Now, as you may know, Mali has been under military leadership since 2020. The army took over the reins of the country following widespread dissatisfaction with the civilian government, accused of not doing enough to, among other things, tackle insecurity. Mali's military government did not release a lot of information following the September attack. However, while attending the recent United Nations General Assembly in New York, Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulayyad D'Op insisted to the BBC that all the necessary measures to neutralize those responsible have been taken. But with an increase in attacks in recent years, is the ruling junta losing a grip on control? Helene Abattone-Muzungu is a security analyst at Risk Assistance Network and Exchange. She began by giving me an understanding of the situation on the ground. In recent months, similar to its neighbour's measure and a book in Afa so Mali has witnessed a continued expansion of Jihadist attacks, primarily driven by Al-Qaeda affiliates and the Islamic State. So notably, large-scale assholes have been have been taken place across the three countries. Furthermore, since the end of July, Mali's junta has been actively engaged in counter offensive operations. At times, these efforts have been supported by Burkina Faso, specifically targeting Tuareg rebels in the north around Tinswar-ten near the Algerian border. So this comes after a significant late July attack that resulted in the deaths of numerous Russian mercenaries and Malian security forces. So in September, the attacking bomber was quite extraordinary because of just the size of it, a lot of casualties, but also a situation where the airport was attacked. There was an Al-Qaeda flag on the airport building and we know airports are supposed to be very secure places. What does this say about the strength or weakness of Mali's security operation? This attack definitely undermined the counter terrorism strategy of the junta. So despite ongoing counter insurgency operations, the ability of these militants to carry out such deadly attacks in the capital points to significant gaps in bomber corps security measures. It reflects the expansion of extremist groups operations from rural regions into Mali's urban centers, further undermining the junta's efforts to stabilize the country. And it also highlights the challenges faced by security forces in intelligence gathering, coordination and counter terrorism strategies, especially in preventing high-profile attacks in supposedly secure areas. And Helen, do you get a sense that the junta is acknowledging the size of the battle? Well, to an extent, they're downplaying it because if they show that they're failing out at counter terrorism insurgency, they're failing at protecting Malians, then it won't look good. However, with this recent attack, they say, look, had this attacked, infiltrated several sites of the capital, which is a sort of an acknowledgement, but they didn't acknowledge the numbers of people killed and the extent of the attack. Is there an ethnic angle to this? What's happening in Mali because there have been allegations in the aftermath of these attacks that foreigners, including those from the Fulani and Turic and Arab communities who are among those arrested and deemed to be behind these attacks? So these groups have long been associated with insurgencies and conflict in Mali, especially in the northern and central regions. So the Fulani, for instance, have often been accused of ties to jihadist groups, while the Turic rebels have historically led rebellions. So this situation has worsened their ethnic tensions as a rest based on ethnicity or association with likely fuel grievances. Yeah, so Helen, we know that Mali has been assessing its relationships with international partners recently, and let's listen here to the foreign affairs minister of Mali, Abdullah Iyob, who spoke to the BBC recently about how they are going about this. The strategic partnership that some of our countries have with Russia is based on the failure of some of the traditional partners to respond to our needs. If I take the specific example of Mali, what our biggest challenge has been in the security front, we have the traditional western partners, like France and others, who did not live up to our expectation to provide us with the equipments and the ammunition, the arms that we need to address the terrorist threats, and they put so many sanctions, so many even conditions, well, even we don't have sanctions, while with Russia and some of the partners like China and Turkey, we have access to those arms sometime based on the use of our own resources to be addressed. So for us, it's not about liking or not like, is which partner respond to our needs and what are the key conditions for this partnership to be engaged. So we don't have to be on one side or another. Helen, is it really a realistic expectation in the part of Mali that these new partners that they're describing, Russia, China, Turkey, that they will not have the conditions that he alluded to the other partners, the western partners that had expectations and conditions? Is it true really that these new partners are sort of giving Mali a free lunch? Well, it's an interesting statement to make. Of course, with any partnership, their conditions and even consequences, the conditions, payments, the condition are in economic interest, such as mines. So it does not mean that there are no conditions or even consequences that are not there. One of the consequences that we're going to see is continued jihadist recruitment driven by the human rights violations that jihadists exploit and continue recruiting. Russia has provided some equipment to Mali, but it's not enough to help fight the insurgency that they're dealing with, but it doesn't mean that any other western partner would not have been able to provide such resources. The question is how are these resources used and how do they affect their insurgency in general? Yeah, if we look at other countries in Africa where Russia is providing that kind of support, whether it's the Central Africa Republic or Niger or other places, what does that tell us about the kind of support that Russia specifically might be able to give Mali? And do we know anything at all about what China and Turkey can do? Well, at the moment, the support that they have provided Mali with is not enough. There are about over a thousand mercenaries from one group that are fighting alongside the government forces. These are not enough to help the junta address the insurgency. And we've also seen in the Central African Republic, like you just mentioned, where they're present, but the situation has not really changed due to the atrocities that have been mentioning, and also their interests in minerals and other assets that the states have. China has so far refrained from engaging on a military level in the Sahel, but we've seen Turkey form closer relations with, for instance, Niger. They have some of the personnel engaged in training security forces in Niger, but it's unlikely that they will get engaged to the same level as Russian mercenaries that are fighting alongside security forces. Closer home then, Mali has left the region of Bloc Echos. It's not the only one. Burkina Faso in Niger did the same, and together they formed the confederation of Sahel states. How will these two entities be able to sort of work together and allow them to coexist in that region? Well, it's going to be difficult. Starting with the Sahel states, the intention is to collaborate and enhance military coordination among the three states, given the threat that they face. However, on the other hand, Echos has been functioning for a very long time. Some of the member states are also opposed to military leadership that we're seeing in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. So what we could see happening is that they could both exist, but the alliance of the Sahel states will be operating on a bilateral level with members of Echos as opposed to Echos, the body itself. So for instance, we recently saw Niger and Nigeria sign a defense agreement where Niger agreed to resume operations against Boko Haram. So we could see such cooperation between individual member states as opposed to the regional body itself. All right. Thank you, Helen. We're going to leave it there. Thank you. Thank you. Helen Abatoni Musungu, a security analyst at Risk Assistance Network and Exchange. This is Focus on Africa from the BBC World Service. 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 s*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 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. The inquiry goes beyond the headlines, exploring the trends, forces and ideas shaping the world. Politics. Civil society, products and services. Each week, we ask one big question. Can Germany's far right win the country? And going search of answers with a help for expert witnesses. Is Turkey getting more dangerous for women? The inquiry from the BBC World Service. Listen now, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. All over the world, doctors are held up to high ethical and professional standards because of the trust that people, especially patients, put in them. Now, concerns have been raised about that trust being violated in Egypt. The Medico Association in the country, known as the Egyptian medical syndicate, has started an investigation into a video that recently went viral. The video sparked outrage and consternation among members of the public, especially women's rights groups. The video allegedly shows a group of men believed to be doctors who are discussing harassment of their female patients during medical examinations. The video, contents of which are too vulgar or obscene to be repeated on air, was circulated on social media by activists. Egyptian authorities say the two doctors have been arrested. Over the past years, incidents of harassment involving doctors have been on the rise, and local newspapers have reported criminal cases against doctors who have sexually assaulted their female patients. To find out what happened, I called up Dr. Abdul Rahman Mustafa, who's the head of General Affairs at the Egyptian Medical Syndicate. Thank you, Dr. Mustafa, for making time to speak with us. Could you please start by exactly telling us what transpired from the video and other audio clips that have been going around regarding this incident? Okay, there are two separate incidents. There's the video that there were some youth just talking badly about girls and some girls passing, and then they are trying to flirt with her, and there was like sound clips, I don't know maybe from Clubhouse or a social media app or something. These young persons, doctors also, they were talking about how would someone of them can harass or flirt with patients during examination, which was shocking for our society and our syndicate. It was a shocking video and a shocking voice clip. Now, as we are speaking, these two doctors are arrested by the government, by the police, and there's an ongoing investigation addressing this issue because it's a very serious issue, and our policy in the Egyptian Medical Syndicate that we have zero tolerance to these types of offenses. How are those clips obtained by the activists and have you been able to speak to these activists yourself? No, these trends became trendy, viral on Twitter, on X, and also on Facebook. Once they are trending, some people send these clips to the Medical Syndicate, and we as a syndicate board, we had discussion about this. Also, we have decided that we should be very strict with these guys, and we are having a very wide investigation at the syndicate, and they may have a suspension from practicing medicine because it's not accepted by any means. What are the steps of this investigation and what will you be looking for? First, to start an investigation in the syndicate, we have two ways. The first way is that someone who's harmed from this offense come and notify us, and this not happened. So, we didn't have until this moment, no one of the girls had an official suitcase or an official notification for the syndicate that these incidents had happened. This is the fastest way when someone just came to the syndicate and say, "Okay, we have a problem with a doctor named so on, so on, he did something like this." So, usually, we will get the doctor and have an investigation with him, and then we try to validate if the incident is real. We can take an action with the doctor, but at this particular issue, no one showed up. So, there's a second way. When something is like very major or something, the syndicate itself starts an investigation without having someone raising this issue, but when we try to contact the doctors just to get them to start an investigation, we will notify that they were held by the police. So, we will wait until, because in Egypt, in order to have a conflict between a doctor and any normal people in the society, they are two parallel ways. They will notify the police and the syndicate. So, the police will go with the legal issue with the starting the investigation with lawyers and so on and so on, and they will go to enforce the law, and if they need to be jailed or something, it will be their issue. And also, the syndicate will investigate this issue in a parallel way in order to have our punishment, which may be like suspension, and suspension from practicing medicine, or it may be permanent, or maybe temporary. Yeah, just like any medical syndicate or over the world. After the police will do their job with him, he will come to defend himself in a syndicate so that our investigation was started, but it will not end at the near future because he is now held at the police station. What are you doing at the medical syndicate to deter these cases from happening, to be proactive and let doctors be in the medical field know that this cannot be happening? Okay, we are talking about two separate issues, because in the particular case that we are discussing, there are two offenses. The first offense is that someone may cross the line with the patient during examination, and the second thing was like going to public and spreading a bad culture as if a community would accept something like this. So in order to address these issues, we at the syndicate, we are launching a code of ethics and a code of also media, how doctors can use media, because as I said to you, it's two problems. The first problem is to cross the line with the patient, and the second problem is to spread this with media. So how would we approach this? The first one, how to draw the perfect line between medical practice and harassment. We have a code of ethics, and we have a lot of workshops and a lot of conferences about the code of ethics, and also in Egypt, ethics is being teach to medical students all over their study years, just to draw the line of what to do and what not to do with their patients. That's in the part of how do we draw the line. It's all about the code of ethics of medical practice. Dr. Abdul Raman Mustafa of the Egyptian medical syndicate. Focus on Africa was put together by Bela Hassan, Yvette Togiramaria, and Nasha Michelle in London. Frannie Joey was here in Ayrobi. Paul Bachbinga was the senior producer. Jonathan Greer was our technical producer. Andrea Lombard and Alice Moudingi are our editors. I'm Charles Guitonga. We'll talk again next time. Hello, I'm Sumi Somaskanda from the Global Story podcast. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump offer two very different views on climate change. One of them will lead the world's greatest producer of fossil fuels and have the power to reshape global climate action. So what would a Harris or Trump presidency mean for the climate crisis? The Global Story brings you fresh takes and smart perspectives from BBC journalists around the world. Find us wherever you get your podcasts. [BLANK_AUDIO]