The paramilitary RSF reported to have stormed Sudan's largest displacement camp. Also: oil clean-up 'scam' warnings ignored by Shell, whistleblower tells BBC, and the beavers who rescued a stalled conservation project.
Chapter 1: What is happening with the displacement camps in Sudan?
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Jackie Leonard and at 14 hours GMT on Wednesday the 12th of February, these are our main stories. The paramilitary rapid support forces in Sudan are reported to have stormed the country's largest displacement camp, which houses half a million people who fled fighting.
The United Nations says it believes 1,400 people were killed during last year's anti-government protests in Bangladesh, mostly by the security forces. And pressure is growing on the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to clarify his latest Gaza ceasefire demands as the truce edges closer to collapse.
Also in this podcast. Between 20 and 60% of our nurses responding reported symptoms of anxiety or reported that they had depression or symptoms of depression.
A snapshot of the mental health burden on nurses around the world. Zamzam Camp in North Darfur houses half a million people who have fled violence in Sudan and who were already facing famine. It's been the target of shelling since late last year. Now refugees there say the RSF paramilitary group has stormed it. There's been looting and a market set ablaze.
Our correspondent in Nairobi, Barbara Plett-Usher, has been following the story.
In terms of the casualties, it's really hard to get a clear picture. We don't really have information about numbers or injuries or deaths. What we have heard is that the injured are having a hard time getting treatment because the hospital in Zamzam no longer does surgeries.
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Chapter 2: What challenges are faced by Sudan's healthcare system?
And the North Darfur health minister has also said that people who were injured weren't able to get to the nearby city of Al-Fasher. If you remember, that's the city that's under siege by the RSF. He says the RSF is blocking the road. Although hospitals in Al Fasher have also either been shut down or damaged in the long siege.
In terms of damage in the camp, it seems as if there was quite extensive damage to the market. That's what we're told. And there are also videos on social media which show smouldering ruins, which we are working at the moment at getting verified.
And we know that the people who were living there are already in a terrible situation. Why is the camp a target for the RSF?
Well, an RSF spokesman I contacted actually denied that the fighters had penetrated the camp. He said they had seized a military base near the camp, which belongs to a group called the Joint Forces. This is an armed group that fights alongside the Sudanese military, and he said it had been shelling RSF checkpoints for days.
An eyewitness told us that the Joint Forces had confronted the RSF in the camp, but he said they arrived after the attack to respond to it.
And looking at the conflict which has been going on for some time now, are we reaching a decisive point?
We might be, broadly speaking. The army has made some significant gains in central Sudan recently. It recaptured the key city of Wad Medini and it has gained control of Jazeera State, which is a strategic state. And now it's closing in on Khartoum from the south.
and has already reclaimed some regions of the capital city from the RSF, in particular Khartoum Behrie, and it's advancing to the centre of the city. It's not clear how much resistance they'll face, whether they'll get street-to-street fighting, or whether there will still be prolonged battles, or whether they will have a victory soon.
There really is nowhere else for the people who are currently in Zamzam to go, is there?
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Chapter 3: What is the alleged oil clean-up scam in Nigeria?
The place was greener, not only mangos, but all by the shoreline. There were popo trees, palm trees and more. But during the spills, the destruction has polluted everywhere. During the spill, most of the children have gotten diseases from drinking the water, and many have died. I've lost eight kids. My husband is sick. I think it's because of the pollution in the environment.
It's the reality of many here.
It literally smells like petrol. And this is the water that you're expected to use to drink, cook, wash. It smells like we're in the fuel station. I guess that's why it's even foaming up.
37-year-old Grace Aldi lives in Ongale with her partner and two-year-old. Oil spills have contaminated the only borehole they have access to, meaning they must buy clean water for 4,500 naira or three US dollars a day. The average wage here is less than eight.
So do you have to be careful how much water you use? Yes.
In 2011, the UN found people were drinking water contaminated with a known carcinogen at levels over 900 times above an international guideline. It led to the formation of a new cleanup agency called Hyprep, run by the Nigerian government and part-funded by oil companies, including Shell. The project was to take 30 years to complete.
Now, the BBC can reveal the $1 billion cleanup operation has been beset with allegations of collusion and fraud. A whistleblower who worked on the scheme and whose identity we're protecting because they fear reprisals told us the operation is a con to siphon money and was widely known by the government and Shell to be failing.
It's common knowledge that really what we're doing is a scam. Most of it is to fool Diogoni people.
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Chapter 4: How has oil pollution impacted local communities in Nigeria?
The BBC has seen internal documents suggesting representatives of Shell and of the Nigerian government were warned over years of alleged failings at the agency, including the awarding of contracts to incompetent companies and even of falsified test results.
Getting away with a scam starts with issuing contracts to contractors who have absolutely no interest or experience in remediation. Then you enter into the world of a high degree of collision between the government agencies, the regulators, and the contractors.
In a meeting with the British High Commissioner to Nigeria last year, minutes of which have been obtained under Freedom of Information laws, Shell representatives acknowledged the institutional challenges of the cleanup agency and the chance of the refusal of future funding towards it.
When we asked Shell whether it knew of alleged failings at High Prep, the company told us, High Prep is an agency established and overseen by the federal government of Nigeria, with its governing council largely made up of senior ministers and government officials, along with five representatives of communities and NGOs and a single Shell representative.
The BBC also visited areas where the Nigerian government and Shell have repeated claims have been cleaned up. It did not take long for us to see oil seep from the ground and float on the water.
Wow, that's the black.
Shell told the BBC, the operating environment in the Niger Delta remains challenging because of the huge scale of illegal activities such as oil theft. We take extensive steps to prevent this activity and the spills it causes. When spills do happen from our facilities, we clean up and remediate regardless of the cause. If it's an operational spill, we also compensate people and communities.
The BBC has asked High Prep and the Nigerian government to comment on the allegations, but has received no response. This week, two Nigerian communities will bring a case against Shell at a London High Court. The company is selling its onshore facilities in Nigeria, but questions over its conduct and legacy here remain.
Simi Jalawasho, in the Niger Delta. UN human rights investigators say they believe 1,400 people were killed during last year's anti-government protests in Bangladesh, mostly by the security forces. The protests began as a student-led movement against public sector job quotas, but soon morphed into a nationwide uprising that forced the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee to India.
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Chapter 5: What are the findings of the UN investigation in Bangladesh?
Yeah, I think the report says three quarters of those who were killed were victims of shooting by military rifles, including shotguns with pellets. But one of Sheikh Hasina's former ministers dismissing it all as preposterous allegations.
I messaged him, and he responded by saying that these allegations were preposterous and no security official was given the order to shoot at civilians straightaway into the protesters. In fact, he said, Mohammad Ali Arafat, he was the minister at that time, he said he was very much involved in the meetings regarding the July protests. At any of these meetings, he was never
aware of giving them direction to the security forces to stop these protesters, disperse them at any cost. But then the U.N. report suggests otherwise. And it also talks about the supporters of the then-governing Awami League also targeting these protesters. And we spoke to several doctors at the time in hospitals where many bodies were brought and then hundreds of injured civilians were brought.
And there was a popular uprising against the government at that time. Now, what this UN report gives is a legal standing, some document by an external agency which has gone into these allegations of human rights abuses, now has come out with a fact-finding report. And that gives a chance for the government to use this for criminal investigation and also to launch legal proceedings.
But at the moment, she is in India. She is in exile. And it all depends on whether Delhi wants to extradite her back to Bangladesh to face these criminal charges.
Anbarasan Etirajan speaking to Ben Brown. There's mounting pressure for the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to clarify his latest Gaza ceasefire demands as the fragile truce edges closer to collapse. After a long Israeli Security Cabinet meeting yesterday, Mr Netanyahu appeared to back President Trump's suggestion that
that Israel cancels the ceasefire deal altogether unless the hostages were returned by Saturday. Hamas has issued a statement renewing its commitment to the ceasefire and accusing Israel of jeopardising it. Our Middle East correspondent Yolande Nell gave us her assessment of Mr Netanyahu's comments.
The prime minister is someone who always chooses his words very carefully. He came out with this video statement after the security cabinet met for four hours. He said they had reached a unanimous decision. And he said if Hamas doesn't return our hostages by noon on Saturday, the ceasefire will stop. He stopped short of specifying why.
all our hostages, exactly echoing the language of President Trump when he had proposed this kind of threat.
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Chapter 6: What is the current status of the Gaza ceasefire?
Our correspondent in Sydney is Phil Mercer.
This appears to have been recorded in a hospital. The video was shared on TikTok by a content creator called Max Vifer, who says he's from Israel. Now, in the footage, another man who claims to be a doctor tells Mr. Vifer that he sends Israelis to an Islamic place akin to hell. Now, this man goes on to make a throat-slitting gesture saying,
A woman then comes on the screen and says that she won't care for Israelis in the hospital. I won't treat them. I will kill them, she says. And as you'd imagine, this video has generated immense outrage and fear here in Australia and beyond.
So what do we know about the people who are in this video and what's happened to them?
Well, the police here in Australia say that they have identified the two nurses involved in the video. They have been suspended. Now, state authorities here in New South Wales say that these two nurses are under investigation and will never work in the Australian health system again. The Australian Prime Minister, Antony Albanese, said that this video was disgusting and vile.
So apart from the political reaction, what other sorts of reaction has there been?
Well, this all comes as Australia has recently passed tougher laws against hate crimes following a wave of high profile anti-Semitic attacks here in Australia in recent weeks and months. We have heard from the head of the Executive Council of Australian Jury, a man called Alex Rivchin, and he's given his reaction to seeing this video.
This morning we saw a video that eloquently illustrated the evil of antisemitism and the extent to which it has consumed the minds of some Australians. The video that we saw was absolutely chilling and horrific.
The brazen way, the open and confident manner in which these people spoke about killing and torturing and wishing death upon Israelis and particularly coming from our medical professionals who we look to for care and support was a ghastly thing to see.
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