Women in Sudan: Targets of ongoing sexual violence

BBC-podkast on suurin edes katsotaan yhden yhden. Lohdon myöntää opea vahittaisasiakkaat o-uji. Katsotaan yhden. Mä oon katsotaan yhden. Tämä on tosi katsotaan. Mä oon tullut yhden. Mä oon tullut yhden. Mä oon tullut yhden. Mä oon tullut yhden. African women is that true? - It was, yes, that was the truth, absolutely, in that form, that the form is, ethnic profiling is critical on targeting with sexual violence. Indigenous, therefore, tribes absolutely are targeted by sexual violence. Indigenous, African groups are more subjected to sexual violence. But right now, for example, in places like in G. Zero and Khartoum, all women are targeted. You know, women who are from Indigenous African tribes, absolutely. - So what happens to women and girls that are assaulted in this way? You've said that the army isn't providing any kind of support for them, they're waging a war, making it impossible for people to access these kinds of facilities. But are there organizations that are trying to help? - The problem is there is so little support for Sudan. People, they keep saying that Sudan crisis is a forgotten crisis. But I would say, at the argument that Sudan crisis is an neglected crisis. It's a crisis that nobody actually is investing on it. You know, so the level of support and the level of it in terms of access to security productive health, access to the protocol post-traum. It's literally nonexisting and civil society, we have to rely on ourselves. We have to rely on our local networks to be able to extend support to survivors, but our capacity is very limited and our outreach is very limited. And until now, the international aid support is not set up and is not in place yet to aid survivors of such events. And this is why, sadly, and Khartoum, we hear stories about so many girls committing suicide, they are taking off their lives. So many girls are sleeping away in a very serious mental health challenges. Add to that the issue of stigma, the issue of the silence, people they don't talk. You know how complicated it is, sexual violence. Sexual violence, it takes, you know, sometimes people they don't talk for months, you know, sometimes it takes years. So there is a lot of people who are living with this and it's really costing a lot, but the lack of services is absolutely lack of safe access to services is highly problematic. Yeah. - It is. And I'm sorry that you have to talk about this to us. And it's the real sadness to hear what's happening to women into done. - You know, I look at, I hear those little girls, you know, and they speak to you. Whatever I'm saying, you know, it's nothing against a pen and what they are going through. This is the least we can do. So thank you very much for having me. - Thank you. Thank you very much. Halal Harib, the regional director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa Network. (upbeat music) If the opians are really going through the most at the moment, the aftermath of the vicious war in Tigray continued conflict in the Amahara region and the serious cost of living crisis is making life incredibly difficult. One of the most serious effects of the shortages brought about by disrupted supply chains is a severe shortage of medicine. Girum Gebede is a pharmacist in Addis Ababa. - In our case, we opened our pharmacy at 8 AM. By the time we get there, there are 30 or 40 people every day. So we sell them first, first and most of the time the people who are in line, they go home without any medicine because the ships will be empty. We have to increase the prices almost every day because of the inflation, because of the shortage of foreign currency and because there is a lot of control and fake medicines going around and people are suffering. - Like so many countries, Ethiopia depends on imported goods. Medicines are included in that. So when dollars are scarce, the things you need to pay for in dollars are also scarce. Samuel Gettachi is a journalist in Ethiopia and he's experienced the drug shortage first hand in his own family. He's been explaining to me how it came to this. - Well, the country is running out of forex according to the government. They only have less than $1 billion for their export needs and much of the things that Ethiopians consume on a daily basis is brought from outside. So with no forex, most of the pharmacies are running out of medicine and many people are being forced to either take a local medicine that hasn't been verified or that substandard or are forced to pay a highly exaggerated prices for some of the medicine that are coming from mostly Western countries. - Give us an idea of what kinds of medicines are not available and how people are going about trying to get them. Anything from basic medicine, vitamin supplements to sophisticated medicines for cancer and HIV for anything, there are some NGOs that provide, for instance, some medicine. But again, the population of Ethiopia is at least 120 million with a majority of people dependent on some kind of support from the government either wanting subsidized medicine or looking for cheaper medicine even from private pharmacies and with an economy that's in the downturn with endless conflicts happening all over the country. I mean, the country is going through a case 22 moment. - And you are personally affected by this, right? - I have been when my father was sick. Unfortunately, he passed on in August 2022. We had to bring his medicine from Canada and sometimes we had run out of medicine and we'd be calling people that are coming in even connecting with Ethiopian Airlines hostesses and pilots to try to help us bring this medicine. And there were moments when we had run away and we couldn't get his medicine on a timely basis. But we tried and we're the very lucky ones among millions of Ethiopians that do not have that kind of connection. And even my cousin who needed vitamin supplements in the last year had to pay highly exaggerated prices from someone selling those medicines because there was no pharmacy that had those medicines. And even when you walk into pharmacies, they offer you. They ask you, they've run out of medicine, but then they offer you expensive medicines if you can afford it. That's where we are at the moment in Ethiopia. - This has been going on for quite a while now. You say your father died in 2022 and before that, you had the struggle on your hands. - Yes, I mean Ethiopia has always been struggling in terms of having enough forex to spend on this kind of resources. But it has really gotten worse since the conflict began because all of a sudden the priority of the Ethiopian society or Ethiopian government was the conflicts and less conflicts. And some of the investors that were providing forex to the economy are either suspended their operation in Ethiopia or have run away. So that really reflects poorly in terms of, you know, providing the needed resources to the population that are really in a desperate situation. There are many, many people that are living with no medicine because they can't afford it. There's no medicine for them. And government cannot either provide them subsidized medicine or pharmacies cannot sell them at a cost. So many people are really, really suffering. It's a uniform like problem. And it's even worse when you go outside of a dish out of the capital of Ethiopia. You say many people are living without medicine. I'm imagining that lots of people are dying because they don't have medicine. I'm sure, I'm sure the cost of conflicts, the cost of an economy that's going down, the price that this country is paying, it's invisible mostly. And I can only talk about the people I've seen, the people I've met mostly in our December. You can only imagine what's happening in other countries. For instance, in Amharra region, there's a conflict. Even if you have the medicine, you can't access much of the population. And the little medicine they can have access to, it's being sold in a highly exaggerated process, just like what we're seeing in Adi Sababa. And this is a situation where Ethiopia is at the moment. Do you know of anybody who may have died because they didn't have the right medicine and couldn't afford it? I have on a personal note, I have tried to be accessible. I've tried to cover my family's need whenever I travel in places like Kenya, which is an abetor situation. But earlier this year in December and January, I offered through social media to bring medicine to anyone who has a need. And the need was overwhelming. I was able to bring some medicine, but the kind of stories I was hearing is really heartbreaking. And you can clearly tell people are hurting. And I'm sure the worst is happening. But I haven't been able to verify anyone who may have died with a lack of medicine. But I'm assuming there are many people who may have died as a result. Tell us a little bit about the response that you got when you posted on Twitter offering to bring medicine from people. Some of the harrowing stories that you have just been talking about. Can you tell us a little bit? Some were cancer patients who needed scarce medicine to actually survive. some of these. We did basic supplements, vitamin supplements, some had diabetes and so on. I think we had two dozen people approach me asking me to support them. We did support them. I, a person who works in one of the NGOs offered to cover some of the costs and we were able to support about a dozen of them. But since my story came out in same or four, I've been offered another assistance from Australia, willing to bring some medicine to those people that we weren't able to support. But this is a glimpse of what's happening in Ethiopia and many people are hoping something will change because again, the cost of war, conflicts and an economy that's in the downturn, as I mentioned to you, is really having an impact on the population. So what's the government's reaction and what is their plan for this? Because it's unsustainable. You can't have people dying from a lack of medicine or suffering from a lack of medicine or people taking substandard medicine and endangering their lives in that way, surely. Well, a year ago, the minister who was in charge of medicine or industry, Ministry of Industry, came out and said the intention is to try to force local manufacturers to get into the business of producing things like medicine. It's been a year. I wonder how successful it's been because I still see lines of people at pharmacies, especially government pharmacies. Whenever I visit local hospitals, as I always do for different stories, I work for as a freelance journalist. I see more people in worse situation that I found them a year ago. But the government is insisting things will change and they will offer support to local manufacturers. I don't know if that's going to be a lofty dream or a reality that's yet to be seen. Why would Ethiopian manufacturers have to be forced to make these medicines? Surely it goes without saying it's a no-brainer. People need medicine. Medicine is not coming into the country. Is the government offering them incentives to do it? Or are they going out on a limb and having to risk taking this step? I'll give an example a year and a half ago, the government decided not to give forex access to a number of companies that bring in things like cars, expensive TVs, perfumes and so on. But they also said they're going to focus on forcing these companies instead of focusing on such a business to have them focus on manufacturing products, the country that the country needs. While this looks good on a piece of paper or perhaps at the press conference. But in reality, many people tend to value medicines that are brought from outside because they fear that what's manufactured in Ethiopia might be substandard. So the government still has some work to do trying to convince what's produced locally is as good as what's produced outside. But we haven't been able to see any of the local medicines that are being produced as a result of the forex shortage that brought this problem to the forefront. But the government is wishing things will change. But they haven't really put any plan to serve or bring what's needed to much of the population. You only have to visit some of the pharmacies to see the hardship that many people are facing at the moment. So are people suffering in silence or are they visible and audible protests about this? Because if your loved ones are dying because the country can't provide, surely it makes people very unhappy. Well, protest is not the norm of the country. But people tend to suffer or people tend to protest and silence. The reason that many people are heading to other countries, for instance, the reason at least the million people are signing up on a government program to be going to countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE and so on, even Lebanon is to really escape the hardship they're facing at the moment. Among the many hardships that they're facing is the lack of medicine to theirs and their loved ones. And they see a chance at going to some other countries. So they won't have to face the daily hardship that many of them or their family members are facing at the moment. That gives you a glimpse of what's really happening in the country. Samuel, thank you very, very much for talking to us about this. Thank you so much. Thank you. Samuel Gettachi is a journalist based in Addis Ababa. So have you watched you watch you yet? If you have, what did you think? And if you haven't, what are you waiting for? Well, I'm one of those who hasn't yet. But it's a six-part animation series which can be found on Disney Plus or on DSTV. It what you means the future in Europe and it uses Nigerian pigeon spoken by Nigerian actors. It is set in a future legos, a city that has embraced technological advancements while retaining a solid sense of its Nigerian identity. It was launched a couple of weeks ago and is a rare collaboration between Disney Plus, streaming platform and an external production company and an African one at that. The company in question is Kugali which is led by three friends from Nigeria and Uganda who wanted to boost African animation. Richard Kagoe spoke to two of the co-founders, Tolu, Olovo, Foyeku and Olufikaio, Sigi Adiola. Where and how did it all begin? I would say the genesis of the idea came from me. What you ultimately see on screen now in Disney Plus is the product of many many different hands. I was wondering if we first pitched the idea to Tolu and Habit and then we refined it a little bit more before we then pitched it to Disney. I'm wondering how you managed to convince Disney that there should be a collaboration. How did you do this? They showed the vision, they showed the quality, they showed the passion, the dedication, the quality of storytelling. By the time they think of the opportunities to know us, they really felt like we want to collaborate with these guys because we never really, they never really done a collaboration like this before. But I think that it was just a match made in heaven. Tolu, because you're the cultural consultant for this series, I'm very curious to know exactly what sort of consultancy you were doing for this. Okay, so for one thing, it was quite easy because I was working with my co-founders. We had already been working together for a while. Fikayo is from Lagos, Nigeria as well. He already knows Lagos to an extent. The difference is he relocated to Newcastle in 2015 and even though he's back in Lagos maybe two, three times almost every single year. His experience is different from mine because I actually live here, I've been here all my life. So Fikayo might write something and then be trying to remember, hey, Tolu, how does this still track? When I was a kid in Lagos, I remember something like this. Do people still do that in Lagos or how would someone say this or what's the word for that? So let's say it starts with Fikayo consulting me. Which is something we were already doing when we walked on comics anyway. But then on the larger scale, I was responsible for just educating everyone who was not from Lagos, Nigeria, but walked on the project, which includes other Africans because Hugali has artists in Uganda, Zimbabwe and we brought these artists onto the project. And then obviously Disney animation brought even more artists than we did because they have so many artists in Borbarn and synagogies brought then a lot of people in Canada. So my job was just to make sure everybody who might not be familiar with Lagos got all the little details right. I'm just wondering how Disney was open to the proposal of a role specifically just focusing on cultural consultancy. What was that like? Oh wow. Fikayo do you remember? I don't remember exactly. I'm not sure if I have this exactly correct, but what I remember is that the moment it was decided that it was going to be the story that we were going to develop into a TV series. I don't know if the suggestion came from me or the suggestion came from you because some of the ideas we pitched didn't necessarily have a lot of Nigerian culture in it. I mean, certainly they didn't have any Lagos culture in it. Therefore, how do we go with one of those ideas? I mean, totally definitely I've still made a kind of contribution, but the role would have been more unclad, but because we really wanted this story to be deeply, deeply rooted in Lagos right from the get away. Even when we're developing the pitch, I remember it's Hulu and having going on a long back and forth about certain things, having wanted to include in the pitch and whatnot. But the point being is that at some point, I don't know if the suggestion came from me or Hulu, the way he was able to bring the most value to this project would be to be a sort of God rail represents what God rails in helping us ensure that this project remained authentic. I think Disney, with the ones who suggested the specific cultural consultant title, but I had known from a very early, very early on that if we were to go with it, why is it so good to be integral in helping us maintain some authenticity? - I just wonder, were there any concessions that had to be made at some point? Any compromises? - Yeah, a lot of compromises, but more from the stories telling, like the after-all story, not the cultural bits. Disney really wanted to get the cultural bits right, but then when it comes to the story, Fikai will talk more about this, but he eventually had a co-write on the project because he was also the director, you know, sometimes directorial duties we don't give him enough time to do the 200 and fifth re-write on the script. So he got a co-writer, so there were definitely some conflicts. - Yes, I don't think it's possible to do a project on this scale without making certain compromises, certain concessions. It was very similar, I sometimes you just acknowledge you go, it's like being in a relationship, so to speak, where if you wanna move forward with the person that you're with, you're going to have to sometimes let certain things go and make certain compromises, but the spirit in which you approach that kind of thing in this for like mutual benefit and development. I think there was an single area, even like in terms of like the visuals, the story, even presenting Nigerian culture to an American company, that created many different avenues for, I think either not quite understanding it in the beginning, so avenues for like misunderstanding, avenues for creative differences. So the short answer is yes. - You pointed out that there are no any sort of like, you know, significant changes, especially when it came to the cultural aspect of it. I wonder how this has been received in Nigeria, could you just paint the picture for me? - The way it's been received in Nigeria, I've seen two versions. There are the people whose minds are just blown that we got all the little details. Like I saw a video on Instagram where this lady was just, just on episode one, it learned, she was just pointing out all the little details, the interlocking tiles on the floor of the main character's house, the different types of flowers in that house, that were also very accurate. The girl we can awkwardly bonnet on our head, all those little details, she was so mind blown, but I noticed most of those people tend to be people when they're just for who are looking back at Nigeria, like, hey, I remember this, I remember this, oh my God, that's so accurate. Oh, they're speaking pigeon, but then many people in Nigeria, you know, like when you're actually in the mystery, you might not appreciate it as much. I think many people in Nigeria tend to think, wait, these people are trying to tell me this story set 100 years in the future, but it still exists, be still exists, problem C that we have in real life, that problem is still in Lagos, 100 years from now, come on, give me a break. So many Nigerians who actually leave in Nigeria tend not to be as impressed. However, I think like many of them, if they actually just got to speak with us and know like why we took those steps, they would appreciate it better, because for one thing, while many people feel like, hey, how come ABC still exists 100 years in the future? No, we actually hope many of those problems no longer exist 100 years in the future, but we decided to design this world, not idealistically, like what we want Lagos to look like, but rather take elements that already exist and Lagos that people can't recognize and just exaggerate it into the future. So it dilates all the way to 11. So that was a design choice, and not a statesman of this is what we hope Lagos will look like. - You know, I just came across this online, with somebody called Zikoku, and the blogger writes this, "Voice acting has always been my biggest issue with Nigerian animation, and to its credit, most of the voice acting in Iwaju is in bad." However, when the characters want to speak PG or even Europe, the results are awkward to say the least. Tola gets off easy since it's established that she's sheltered, but Kolei is supposed to be the guy from Ajagun Le. His speech in shulings sounds so odd. I wonder what your reaction to this tiny criticism? - So I've seen that blog post, and Zikoku has a brand typically likes to post tongue-in-cheek articles, which I'm not to be taking too seriously. - One thing I'll also say as well, and this sort of eludes to a question that you had asked earlier about compromises, is that there were certain lines that, especially with the pigeon, there's certain lines that we had to really exaggerate, especially with the level of eloquence that the line was read with, in order to make sure that it was really, really audible for a global audience. So I do think that that was part of the consequence of this being like such a global collaboration. I remember there's some lines specifically where we'd get notes of "Oh, can you read it?" Not necessarily changing the accent, but can you really like, add a huge certain word so that you're talking. So if I'm really trying to talk to somebody who doesn't speak English, so I'm speaking slowly as I'm doing now, someone who is a fluent English speaker, listen to the way I'm talking on people, "Why is he talking like that?" That seems a little bit strange. So there's a little bit of that in the show with certain lines that certain people who were reviewing the show, pointed out as, "Oh, I don't really understand this," or kind of, "Can I be re-registered?" So I would say that there is something, a little bit to that in that particular avenue. - Like Ziki said, we definitely did have to adjust certain things before the global audience. And if you think about it, people when you watch, let's say cartoons in America on maybe "Cartoon Network" or something, the way the characters speak, you would be like, "That's not actually how real people would speak even in America," but it's a cartoon, so they have to make certain phrases more dramatic or more pronounced, just, you know, cater to the audience a bit better. - Tolo and Fikaio, thank you so much for your time, was great having you on Focus on Africa podcast. - Thank you, thank you. - Thank you so much. - Richard was talking to Kugali founders, Tolo, "Olo or Foyaku" and "Olo Fikaio, Ziki, Adiola." (upbeat music) - Focus on Africa was put together by Sunita Nahar, Yvette Twagira Maria and Richard Kaguay. Kani Shop pulled it all together. Johnny Ho was our technical producer. Our editors are Andre Lombard and Alice Muthangi. I'm Audrey Brown, we'll talk again next time. (upbeat music) - Hi, Namulanta Kumboh here with some very exciting news. My award-winning podcast, "Dear Dota," is back for a new series. I'm putting together a handbook to life for daughters everywhere, collecting letters from listeners from all over the world, full of stories and advice to help navigate life. And I'm joined by some very special guests, sharing their experiences and words of wisdom too. That's "Dear Dota" from the BBC World Service. Find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts. (dramatic music) (dramatic music)