The gangs holding Haiti hostage
Criminal turf wars terrorise Port au Prince; hunger spreads in Sri Lanka; Morocco’s joy in the Atlas Lions and climate-change dilemmas for reindeer herders in Sweden's far north.
Pascale Harter introduces dispatches from Â鶹Éç correspondents and writers in Haiti, Sri Lanka, Morocco and Sweden.
Port au Prince, the Haitian capital, is a city living in fear of the criminal gangs which control many neighbourhoods – and which sometimes go to war with each other. This summer brought a new level of disorder, with hundreds of people killed and abducted, and dozens of women and girls reporting gang rapes, over period of just a few weeks. Orla Guerin reports from Cité Soleil, the neighbourhood at the epicentre of the violence.
Sri Lanka’s political crisis might be out of the headlines, but its economic crisis is by no means over. That means slow-spreading hunger and malnutrition – with particular risks to the health of young children and expectant mothers. Archana Shukla saw the danger signs in the green landscapes of Sri Lanka’s central highlands.
In the end, the Atlas Lions didn’t make it to the World Cup final – after being beaten in a nail-biting semi-final against France. But as James Copnall saw for himself in Casablanca, the team’s unexpected success during the tournament sparked a particular sense of pride and joy in Morocco.
And in the Arctic north of Sweden, Maddy Savage meets members of the Sami indigenous community who’ve herded reindeer through its frozen forests for millennia. Now they’re having to confront not just climate change – as erratic thaws and freezes leave their animals unable to graze – but the use of their lands for sustainable energy projects.
Producer: Polly Hope
Production Co-ordinator: Iona Hammond
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
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