Voices from Syria’s North-West
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 9 February 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kate Adie presents stories from Syria, Nigeria, Romania, Armenia and Pakistan
Leila Molana-Allen has spoken to anxious friends and relatives in the Syrian diaspora who are preparing for the worst as roads are blocked and airports closed. Many relief workers are running low on supplies as they battle to reach those stranded.
Mayeni Jones has been in the midst of the chaotic fall-out from the Nigerian Central Bank's decision to replace the high denomination bank notes, which led to fights breaking out in banks and long queues forming as the new notes became scarce to find.
Paul Kenyon visits the Romanian home of former championship boxer and social media influencer Andrew Tate, who's been detained in the country due to allegations of people trafficking and rape. He finds the house wasn't quite what he expected for someone who boasts about a glamour lifestyle - and went to hear what the locals make of him.
A group of teenagers got stranded on the Armenian border after they travelled to Yerevan from Nagorno-Karabakh for the Eurovision Junior Song Contest. Azerbaijani political activists staged a sit in on the only road connection Armenia to the breakaway region and have stopped all civilian traffic from passing. Gabriel Gavin spoke to the children caught in the middle of the conflict.
And finally, over this past year, Pakistan has marked the 75th anniversary of its formation. There were many individual stories of communities and families who were split or who chose to relocate and the reverberations of that partition are still felt today. Ash Bhardwaj reflects on his first visit to Pakistan as someone who is half Indian and grew up in England.
Producers: Serena Tarling and Louise Hidalgo Editor: China Collins Production Coordinator: Helena Warwick-Cross
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts |
| 0:04.9 | Today Brawl's breakout in banks across Nigeria as customers vent their frustration over |
| 0:11.4 | the decision to replace high-denomination banknotes. |
| 0:16.0 | We're in Romania's capital, Bucharest, where former boxer and social media influencer |
| 0:21.9 | Andrew Tate ran his day facto empire, so what do the locals make of him? |
| 0:28.6 | Pulled up in a conflict young musicians from Nagorno-Karabakh get stranded in Armenia after |
| 0:35.2 | a trip to watch the junior Eurovision song contest. |
| 0:39.7 | And in the 75th anniversary year of Pakistan's partition from India, we hear the story of |
| 0:46.0 | one family's experience of waking up to find themselves in a different country. |
| 0:53.0 | First, the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake which struck Turkey south and northern Syria |
| 0:59.6 | early on Monday morning has killed thousands, with the death toll rising each day. |
| 1:06.0 | Emergency teams race to save people trapped beneath the rubble after buildings collapsed |
| 1:10.5 | in cities across the region. |
| 1:13.0 | The rescue effort has proven particularly difficult in Syria's northwest, an area already badly |
| 1:19.2 | damaged by the civil war, with limited access to power or the internet. |
| 1:24.6 | In the Syrian diaspora, anxious relatives and friends are trying in vain to reach people |
| 1:29.6 | on the ground. |
| 1:31.2 | But with communication lines down, airports closed and roads blocked, many are preparing |
| 1:37.1 | for the worst, as Leyla Malana Allen. |
| 1:41.7 | Wailing men swipe desperately at angry twisted spikes of metal, tearing out from a towering |
| 1:47.8 | pile of stone, structures that once sheltered their families, now they try to pry their |
| 1:54.4 | children from beneath the unforgiving layers of rubble with their bare hands. |
... |
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