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Tuesday 13 May 2008

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Interviews

Interview with Toby Lanzer – UN Humanitarian Coordinator in CAR - 3 April 2008
		The Central African Republic, plagued by decades of mutinies, coups and rebellions, is in the midst of another cycle of deadly violence. Although two rebel groups are observing a truce with the government ahead of a national political dialogue, bandits who kill and kidnap have contributed to the displacement of almost 300,000 civilians in the north of the country. Although CAR has long been neglected by the international community, the last year has seen a surge in the presence of UN agencies and NGOs. The UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator, Toby Lanzer, spoke to IRIN about the country’s problems and what is being done about them:
Full interview

Sultan appeals to Islamic states to save Darfur - 14 March 2008
		Darfur gets its name from its largest ethnic group in the region the Fur, who dominated the area for hundreds of years. Some 2.5 million people have been displaced in Darfur and hundreds of thousands of have died, many of them Fur. Two human rights groups, the US-based Save Darfur Coalition and the Senegalese group RADDHO (Recontre Africaine pour La Défense des Droits d l'Hommes), have sponsored the Sultan of the Fur, Salah Eldine Mahamat Fadoul, and one of his Islamic advisors to come to the Organization of Islamic Conference heads-of-state summit in Dakar this week to try to persuade Islamic leaders to work more actively to stop the violence in Darfur. On 13 March the leaders of Chad and Sudan met at the OIC and signed an agreement to stop supporting rebels in their respective countries. IRIN spoke to Sultan Fadoul about this new agreement and the search for peace in Darfur. The following are excerpts:
Full interview

Foreign minister pleads for international intervention - 5 February 2008
		In an exclusive IRIN interview, Chad's foreign minister Ahmat Allam-mi warns of a “catastrophic situation” in Central Africa unless the international community intervenes to help Chad stop the rebels who are currently surrounding the country’s capital N’djamena.
Full interview

Interview with top Saudi UN official on humanitarian aid - 2 January 2008
		On 10 July 2007 a Saudi national, Abdul Aziz Muhammad Arrukban, became the special humanitarian envoy of UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon. The secretary-general tasked him with ensuring strengthened linkages between UN humanitarian efforts and humanitarian aid provided by governments and organisations in the Middle East and North Africa. Part of his brief was also to focus on building partnerships for disaster response.
Full interview

Thoughts on the pending EU/UN mission from UN's top humanitarian official - 17 December 2007
		Aid organisations are struggling to provide assistance to around half a million people in the east of Chad at a time when numerous rebel groups are launching offensives against the army.
Full interview

Randolph Kent on urbanisation and "humanitarian futures" - 21 November 2007
		Dr Randolph Kent, who directs the Humanitarian Futures Programme at King’s College, London, and is a senior research associate in the College’s School of Social Science and Public Policy, spoke to IRIN from London in October 2007 about urbanisation.
Full interview

Settling Bakassi - interview with UN envoy Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah - 14 November 2007
		After 43 years of border tensions and occasional violence, Nigeria and Cameroon appear to have resolved their border issues once and for all. The two countries set up a ‘mixed commission’ to craft and implement the agreements, which until recently was headed by Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative at the UN Office for West Africa (UNOWA). He is now the Special Representative for Somalia but he spoke with IRIN in November while in Dakar. The following are excerpts:
Full interview

Interview - President says border issues "must be resolved" - 12 October 2007
		President Isaias Afewerki discusses the border dispute with Ethiopia and humanitarian issues with IRIN.
Full interview

Darfur crisis to linger until political solution - aid official - 5 September 2007
		The humanitarian crisis in Darfur is likely to persist for the foreseeable future unless a political solution is found to address the root causes of the conflict, a senior aid official said.
Full interview

Presidential candidate decries ethnic marginalisation - 4 April 2007
		One of the candidates in Nigeria 21 April presidential election is Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu. He was the head of the separatist state of Biafra between 1967 and 1970. Ojukwu, who is now 73 and almost completely blind from glaucoma, talked with IRIN at his home in the Igbo city of Enugu.
Full interview

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This material comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member States. Republication is subject to terms and conditions as set out in the IRIN copyright page.