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From Our Own Correspondent

The parents suing over Gambia’s cough syrup scandal

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kate Adie introduces stories from The Gambia, Iran, the USA, Chile and Hungary. Dozens of bereaved families in the Gambia are taking legal action against an Indian drug manufacturer and Gambian health authorities, after more than 70 infants died after taking apparently toxic cough remedies. Sam Bradpiece heard their stories and traces how these medicines came to market. As Iran approaches the first anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini, the authorities are already cracking down on signs of public dissent. She was a young woman arrested for "incorrect hijab", whose fate triggered a wave of protest across Iran. Lois Pryce speaks to some of the generation of young women who took to the streets a year ago, and now say they're ready to do so again. The Capitol riot on the 6th of January 2021 is still roiling American politics - as some high-profile Republican politicians say the people who were involved were patriots who shouldn't be punished. But the courts have issued verdict after verdict against the architects of the disorder. Mike Wendling reports from Washington DC on the sentencing of a leading figure in the chaos - Enrique Tarrio, former leader of activist group the Proud Boys. In Chile there's been heated debate over how best to mark the fifty years since General Pinochet's military takeover. These days few people deny the killings, torture and disappearances were committed during his dictatorship - but up to a third of Chileans are willing to say the coup was necessary. Jane Chambers considers the nuances of a country torn between left and right. It's been a terrible year for fruit in Hungary - so Nick Thorpe was prepared to go without his usual annual ritual of making his pear crop into homemade brandy. But as it turned out, an unexpected windfall of 200kilos of sour cherries would fuel an even more potent brew... Producer: Polly Hope Editor: Bridget Harney Production Co-Ordinator: Gemma Ashman

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts

0:05.1

Today the women and girls in Iran who are still ready to risk everything by demanding more

0:10.7

freedom are not just the liberty to dress as they wish. There's a moment of shame in court

0:16.6

for a ringleader of the right-wing American pressure group called The Proud Boys.

0:21.9

50 years after General Pinochet's coup, Chile is still torn between the political left and right,

0:28.3

but the renewances, the rest of the world, doesn't grasp. And an eye-watering slug of Hungarian

0:34.8

summer in liquid form, as one correspondent reveals how to turn 200 kilos of sour cherries

0:41.8

into 13 litres of distilled firewater. First to the Gambia in West Africa,

0:49.1

where last year a major danger to public health came in the form of a supposed remedy.

0:54.9

Within just a few months more than 70 children all under the age of five died after drinking

1:01.2

toxic cough syrup, which had been imported from India and so legally at pharmacies.

1:07.1

Now some brave parents have launched legal action against the drug manufacturer in India

1:12.8

and against Gambia and a health authorities. They're asking for close to $5 million in

1:18.5

damages, but also insists they're seeking justice. Ahead of the first court hearing in October,

1:25.3

journalist Sam Bradpie spent time with some of the parents.

1:30.4

Lamin Sanya was a joyous, curious and extremely active three-year-old. His father,

1:36.8

Ebradima, who works as a taxi driver in an around Gambia's capital, Banjul, told me how his son

1:43.0

used to spend his days jumping all over the furniture and kicking balls around the yard.

1:48.7

Sometimes, when Ebradima went to work, Lamin would insist on joining him,

1:53.2

sitting on his lap, two hands on the steering wheel, pretending to drive.

1:58.0

In September 2022, the day before Lamin was due to start pre-school, he came down with a fever.

2:04.8

Doctors prescribed a cough syrup containing paracetamol, which was imported from India.

...

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