0:00

This is the BBC. Once

0:30

you start investigating, you won't want

0:32

to stop. We're done when I

0:34

say we're done. Stream your favourite

0:36

detectives, only on Britbox. Start a

0:38

free trial at britbox.com. Today,

1:00

the story of a six-year-old girl

1:02

trapped as she tried to escape

1:04

Gaza City throws into a

1:25

sharp relief the perilous nature of

1:28

rescue efforts as the bombardment

1:30

continues. In Syria,

1:32

we find out what life is like

1:35

for people still living amid the ruins

1:37

of civil war and the

1:39

devastating earthquake which hit the region

1:41

a year ago. In

1:43

Tobago, we hear about the island's sibling

1:46

rivalry with Trinidad and

1:48

a Sunday school that's not quite what

1:50

it seems. And we're

1:52

in the Ivory Coast, which faces

1:55

Nigeria in the Africa Cup of

1:57

Nations final this weekend. country's

2:00

transformation over the last decade.

2:04

But first, Pakistan went to

2:06

the polls this week in

2:08

an election mired in questions

2:10

about its credibility. The

2:12

return of the three-time former Prime

2:15

Minister Nawaz Sharif to the political

2:17

fray has raised eyebrows

2:19

after he had previously been

2:21

imprisoned for corruption and given

2:23

a lifetime ban from taking

2:25

office, which was eventually lifted.

2:28

The election comes almost two years

2:31

after the former PM Imran

2:33

Khan was ousted in a

2:35

no-confidence vote. He is

2:37

now in prison on corruption charges,

2:39

a case which he says is

2:42

politically motivated. Caroline Davis

2:44

reflects on who really wields

2:46

the power in Pakistan. Many

2:50

elements of this year's election in

2:52

Pakistan feel familiar. The posters

2:54

bearing the smiling or majestic faces of

2:56

candidates and their leaders, the sudden burst

2:59

of a party's patriotic song down main

3:01

highways as convoys of cars and pickups

3:03

with party flags strapped to the side

3:05

parade through the streets. The

3:08

ever-growing questions about whether this

3:10

election has been manipulated by

3:12

Pakistan's powerful military. On

3:15

election day, as we drove our way past

3:17

the army officers and into the government school,

3:20

which served as a polling station, we realised

3:22

that the vote would have a different challenge.

3:25

Flicking through early morning social media

3:27

posts, all our phones suddenly stopped

3:29

working. The internet and phone

3:32

services had been completely cut off. It

3:35

was the first time this has happened in

3:37

Pakistan on a general election. The

3:40

authority said this was about security. The

3:42

day before the polls opened, two explosions had

3:44

killed 28 people in Balochistan.

3:47

But most of the attacks in recent

3:50

weeks have been isolated to two provinces,

3:52

not the entire country. Many

3:54

accused the state of deliberate disruption.

3:58

In the queues to vote on Lahore's side's We

4:00

met people who said that they'd struggle to work

4:02

out where they should be casting their vote without

4:04

the internet. Others told us that

4:06

they couldn't coordinate with family and friends to

4:09

reach polling stations. At

4:11

the last election, the mood music was

4:13

very different for PTI and their candidate

4:16

Imran Khan. Mr. Khan

4:18

was widely seen then to be

4:20

the Pakistan military's favored candidate.

4:23

His key political opponent, Nawaz Sharif,

4:25

was in prison. Now

4:27

a free man, former Prime Minister Mr.

4:29

Sharif has been back out campaigning to

4:31

regain power. Mr. Khan's

4:34

relationship with the military soured. He was

4:36

removed from power in a vote of

4:38

no confidence, but refused to go quietly.

4:40

The court cases against him grew until

4:42

he was arrested last May. Protests

4:45

erupted around the country, some turned

4:47

violent, and there were attacks on

4:49

military buildings. The crackdown

4:51

against the PTI was immediate.

4:55

Although Mr. Khan was released from prison

4:57

on bail, one by one his party

4:59

leaders resigned. His supporters were

5:01

arrested, accused of being involved in the

5:03

violence. When he was

5:05

arrested again in August 2023, there

5:07

were no countrywide protests. Khan

5:10

has not been seen in public since. Days

5:13

before the election, he was sentenced to

5:15

three long prison terms. His

5:17

party has marched on without their leader,

5:19

buoyed by a huge and passionate social

5:22

media campaign that tried to convert each

5:24

new blow to Imran Khan into public

5:26

outrage. But the Election

5:28

Commission stripped the party of use of

5:30

their cricket bat symbol on the ballot forms,

5:33

crucial to help identify candidates in a country

5:35

where 40% cannot read. Instead,

5:38

each PTI candidate has had to compete

5:40

as an independent and was given a

5:42

different symbol, ranging from a saxophone to

5:44

a baby's cot. PTI

5:47

candidates around the country said that

5:49

they had seen their supporters intimidated,

5:51

posters torn down and some arrested.

5:54

While some smaller rallies continued, the party said

5:56

it was not given permission for larger ones.

5:58

The authorities have been arrested. consistently denied that

6:01

there is any attempt to suppress

6:03

Mr Khan's party, calling the

6:05

allegations faceless and absurd. But

6:08

many asked whether the blows to the

6:10

PTI and Mr Khan would galvanise his

6:12

support base or leave them deflated and

6:15

demoralised. Even

6:17

before the polls closed, social media

6:19

began filling with claims of victory.

6:22

Both Khan's PTI and Nawaz Sharif's party

6:24

said that they had enough votes to

6:26

form a government, but the official results

6:28

were slow to come. At

6:31

the Electoral Commission's headquarters, officials said that the

6:33

internet outage had meant that they couldn't use

6:35

the new electronic management system that they had

6:37

set up. The delay fuelled

6:40

more allegations of vote rigging on social

6:42

media, denied by the Election Commission. In

6:45

Lahore, normally a Sharif stronghold, we headed

6:47

to one of the city's old shopping

6:49

streets. Many voters were

6:51

already sceptical before the vote, but the

6:53

internet cut and delay had made them

6:55

even less convinced. This

6:58

isn't an election, it's selection,

7:01

said Subban, standing outside his baseball hat

7:03

shop. As the official

7:05

results began to feed in, Khan backed

7:07

candidates pulled ahead. This raises

7:09

a new question. How

7:12

does a group, technically not recognised as

7:14

a party, with its leader in prison,

7:16

operate in Parliament? And

7:19

what does that mean about the relationship

7:21

between Pakistan's population and its

7:23

military? What

7:25

is clear is that Imran Khan's party

7:27

has shown that he still has a

7:29

solid base of support beyond that expressed

7:31

on social media. What is

7:33

not is what happens next

7:35

to Pakistan, which is now

7:38

entering potentially precarious territory. Caroline

7:41

Davies. Syria has

7:43

been caught up in a devastating civil

7:45

war for nearly 13 years. In

7:48

Idlib, still a stronghold of

7:51

the rebel forces, people have

7:53

repeatedly been displaced by the

7:55

conflict and subjected to bombardment

7:57

by Syrian government forces. last

8:00

year an earthquake hit, compounding

8:02

the damage to infrastructure and

8:05

to people's lives. More than 5,500 Syrians

8:08

died. Last week

8:11

we heard how this same

8:13

earthquake affected Turkey's Hatai province.

8:15

Today we hear from Leila

8:18

Malana-Allen, reporting on life in

8:20

Syria's northwest, one year on. On

8:24

a quiet corner in Idlib city sits a

8:26

pink house, plastered with small,

8:28

brightly painted handprints. One

8:30

of the few orphanages still running here,

8:32

they're at double capacity. The

8:35

influx came after hundreds of

8:37

children lost their parents, often

8:39

their whole families, in last

8:41

February's devastating earthquakes. Access

8:44

to this besieged enclave of northwest

8:46

Syria is tightly controlled. Few

8:48

journalists are allowed inside. People

8:50

here feel forgotten. As

8:53

I drive through town after town, rubble

8:55

still filling the streets and shattered

8:58

concrete buildings sliding menacingly towards

9:00

the ground, like collapsing cakes.

9:03

It's clear rebuilding hasn't got far.

9:06

In a quiet room upstairs sits

9:09

12-year-old Yasmin, three of her

9:11

limbs tightly bandaged. Yasmin's

9:13

eyes stay fixed to the

9:15

ground. Her small fingers curl tightly

9:17

around my hand, as she

9:20

tells me about that night. I

9:22

was asleep and I felt the earth

9:24

shaking. My father dragged us out, but

9:27

the building collapsed on us. Then

9:29

I couldn't feel anything. I

9:32

suddenly found myself alone. We were

9:34

six of us, and now it's just

9:36

me, all alone. Yasmin's

9:40

mother, father, and five siblings were

9:42

crushed to death. Her

9:44

legs and one of her arms were

9:46

crushed too, but she survived, rescued after

9:49

more than a day under the rubble. Only

9:52

her elderly grandparents are left. They

9:54

can't take care of her injuries, so they

9:56

visit her here. She's doing

9:59

what she can to learn. to walk again. When

10:02

I asked her about the center, a hint of

10:04

a smile lifts the corner of her mouth. They're

10:07

so nice here. They take us

10:09

outside on trips. They teach us. This

10:13

place vibrates with love, with

10:15

tenderness. A few young

10:17

members of staff facing endless

10:19

loss themselves, trying to

10:22

be mother, father, teacher, nurse

10:24

to dozens of traumatized children.

10:27

It's a big responsibility and we try to

10:30

do the best we can, says Suhad, one

10:32

of the administrators. When

10:34

the children first came, any sound

10:36

made them terrified. They were

10:38

so lonely and wouldn't speak to

10:40

anyone, but now they have

10:43

friends. But they can

10:45

only do so much. They need funding,

10:47

says Suhad. What future

10:49

can they promise in this abandoned pocket

10:51

of the world? Their capacity

10:54

is limited and many thousands more

10:56

are living in the crumbling camps

10:58

spread across Idlib and West Aleppo.

11:01

In the depths of winter, these camps have

11:04

become swamps. Freezing rain

11:06

floods the potholed alleyways with mud,

11:08

seeping through the thin canvas of

11:11

the tents to soak everything inside.

11:14

Young children cough, breathing in the

11:16

toxic black fumes that hang heavy

11:18

over the tent city, as

11:20

residents burn whatever they can find to

11:23

stay warm. Most of

11:25

the four and a half million

11:27

people living here already needed humanitarian

11:29

aid to survive before the earthquake

11:31

struck. Many of them

11:33

have been displaced multiple times, losing

11:36

loved ones in horrific violence along the

11:38

way. And as they face

11:40

a worsening crisis, the world is turning away.

11:42

An upswell and

11:44

donations after the quakes soon

11:46

faded. Khaled has eight young children.

11:49

He broke his shoulder and damaged his

11:51

back rescuing his kids during the earthquakes.

11:54

They're alive, but have little else.

11:57

He can't work or afford the

11:59

surgeries he has. needs to recover. So

12:02

they spend their days shivering in

12:04

a sprawling camp outside Salkeen, waiting,

12:07

hoping for help that never comes.

12:11

We need bread, food, my baby girl

12:13

needs milk, I don't have money to

12:15

get milk for her. Her mother's sick

12:18

and she needs medicine. I

12:20

asked my neighbor for a loan but he doesn't

12:22

have it. No one here

12:24

has anything. Two weeks

12:26

after I visited the orphanage it was

12:28

hit by a Russian airstrike. They've

12:30

had to evacuate. Another

12:32

life-saving service waiting to be

12:35

rebuilt. More displaced children

12:37

with nowhere to go. As

12:40

I turn to leave Yasmin's grandmother

12:42

stifles a sob, watching her granddaughter

12:44

struggle to take a few steps.

12:47

She embraces me, locking her

12:49

cataract-fogged eyes on mine. What

12:52

can I do for her? Everything

12:54

has been taken from us here. What

12:57

will happen to us? We have

12:59

nothing left to give. Leila

13:01

Malana Allen. Gaza,

13:04

like Syria, is also facing

13:06

a humanitarian crisis as the

13:08

Israel-Gaza war enters its fifth

13:11

month. Three in four

13:13

Gazans have been displaced according to

13:15

the UN and the whole population

13:18

faces acute shortages of food, water,

13:21

shelter and medicine. The

13:23

fragile nature of the peace talks

13:25

is not offering much hope of

13:28

any imminent reprieve. Lucy

13:30

Williamson tells the story of a

13:32

child caught up in the fighting

13:34

when she tried to escape Gaza

13:36

City. For Rana

13:39

the breaking point was the photo. She

13:41

saw it the day after the call. The

13:44

girl she'd spoken to for hours down a

13:46

wobbly phone line to Gaza suddenly

13:48

had a face. When I

13:50

was talking to her I thought she was much older,

13:52

Rana told me. When I saw

13:54

what she looked like it really affected me.

13:58

The girl, Hend Rajab, was

14:00

six years old, speaking to

14:02

Rana from her uncle's car under

14:04

fire and surrounded by her dead

14:06

relatives. Rana, a call

14:09

operator at the Palestinian Red Crescent

14:11

headquarters, 50 miles away

14:13

in the occupied West Bank, kept

14:15

the six-year-old on the line for hours as

14:18

paramedics waited for permission from Israel's army

14:20

to go in and rescue her. She

14:23

kept repeating, come and get me. Send

14:26

someone to get me, Rana remembered. Hent

14:29

had been fleeing fighting in Gaza

14:31

City with her uncle, aunt, and

14:33

five cousins. The story

14:35

of what happened, pieced together from

14:37

family members and audio recordings of

14:39

her calls with emergency services, began

14:42

with shelling in their neighborhood and an

14:45

evacuation order from the Israeli army. Her

14:48

uncle drove the family towards Al-Azhar University

14:50

in the south of the city, before

14:53

apparently coming face to face with

14:55

Israeli tanks. As he

14:57

pulled into a petrol station, the car seems

15:00

to have twice come under fire. Six-year-old

15:03

Hent was the only survivor.

15:06

Ambulance crews coordinate with Israel's

15:08

army to enter active combat

15:10

zones, but agreement can take

15:12

hours. Every once in a

15:14

while, she'd tell us it was getting darker outside,

15:17

Rana told me. She was

15:19

scared of the dark, so we told

15:21

her to play hide and seek with us, to

15:23

close her eyes until morning. When

15:25

permission was finally granted, two

15:28

paramedics, Yousaf and Ahmad, headed towards

15:30

the petrol station, where Hent was

15:32

waiting, still surrounded by the bodies

15:34

of her aunt, uncle, and cousins.

15:37

The last operators heard from the ambulance

15:40

crew was when they radioed to

15:42

say they were entering the area and could

15:44

see the car Hent was in, then

15:46

the line to them, and also

15:48

to Hent, disconnected for good. The

15:51

last we heard is continuous gunfire in

15:54

the area, Red Crescent spokeswoman

15:56

Nibel Fassak told me. We're

15:58

still not sure if they're alive or not. not, if

16:01

they manage to rescue Hend or not, whether

16:03

they were arrested. We need

16:05

answers. This case

16:07

has affected Red Crescent staff, already traumatized

16:09

by the loss of twelve colleagues in

16:12

Gaza and the daily struggle to help

16:14

those trapped and injured in the war,

16:17

in the face of fierce fighting,

16:19

Israeli army control, and a lack

16:21

of communication on the ground. They've

16:23

begun a campaign to find the missing

16:26

six-year-old and their two colleagues. The

16:28

question, where is Hend burning

16:31

like wildfire across Palestinian

16:33

media and conversations online?

16:36

For those with a mission to

16:38

protect, the helplessness of six-year-old Hend

16:40

has brought into clear relief the

16:42

challenges of providing that protection in

16:44

Gaza now. Even

16:46

the helpers are sometimes helpless. I

16:49

felt paralyzed, Rana told me. It

16:52

wasn't just an inability to help,

16:54

it was complete paralysis when

16:56

you can't do anything at all. It's

16:59

hard at night, she said. I

17:01

wake up with her voice in my ears saying,

17:03

come and get me. We

17:06

get dozens of calls from civilians who are

17:08

trapped in their homes, elderly people,

17:10

sick people who need to be transferred

17:12

urgently to hospitals, women in labor, Nibel

17:15

Farsak told me. But we

17:17

are completely denied access to areas

17:19

Israel considers as military zones. In

17:22

many cases, injured people have bled to death

17:24

without us being able to come and pick

17:26

them up. International humanitarian

17:28

law says that anyone wounded during

17:31

a conflict must be given the

17:33

medical care they need to the

17:35

fullest practical extent and with

17:37

the least possible delay. Israel's

17:40

army has said it's looking into the

17:42

disappearance of Hend and the two paramedics.

17:45

It has previously accused Hamas

17:47

of using ambulances to transport

17:49

its weapons and fighters. But

17:52

there's something about Hend's story that has

17:54

cut people to the core that

17:56

confronts adults caught up in Gaza's war

17:58

with their own. powerlessness,

18:01

with the horror of calling for help when

18:03

no one comes. After

18:06

the Hamas attacks in Israel, many

18:08

Israelis demanded to know, where

18:10

was the army? As

18:12

bombs rained down on Rafah after

18:14

four months of war, the

18:16

refrain from Gazans is, where

18:18

is the world? The story

18:21

of six-year-old Hend has brought to the

18:23

surface feelings that adults might try to

18:25

bury in the rubble of Gaza. The

18:28

answer to the question, where is Hend, is

18:31

that she's everywhere. Lucy

18:34

Williamson. Trinidad

18:36

and Tobago today is one of

18:38

the wealthiest countries in the Caribbean,

18:40

thanks to its significant oil and

18:42

gas reserves, not to mention tourism.

18:45

But the current prosperity belies

18:48

a complex past. Between

18:50

them, they were colonised by France,

18:52

Spain and Britain, though it was

18:55

under British rule that the two

18:57

islands were combined into a single

18:59

colony. And that's how it

19:01

stayed until the country finally gained its

19:03

independence in 1962. Today

19:07

Trinidad and Tobago have a

19:09

strong shared identity and vibrant

19:12

culture, but some power struggles

19:14

still remain, as Sarah

19:16

Wheeler discovered. The

19:18

steel pan music at Sunday School

19:21

was so loud, the bass notes

19:23

ricocheted like pinballs inside my ribcage.

19:26

All across this outdoor venue in

19:28

Baku, beams of white

19:30

light from mobile phones strobed around moving

19:32

figures. The scent of

19:35

frangipani lost its battle with the scent of bodies.

19:38

I had arranged to meet my friend Arthur

19:40

here, the most famous nightclub in Tobago, open

19:43

only on Sundays and long a fixture

19:45

on the social landscape. The

19:47

club is deceptively called Sunday School after its

19:49

original venue, a church hall on the other

19:52

side of the road. Revelers,

19:54

you get the impression, enjoy

19:56

flaunting secular decadence. When

19:59

I finally found Arthur, I was so happy. I couldn't hear

20:01

a word, he said. We

20:03

met again the next day, in an environment

20:06

more conducive to communication. Arthur

20:09

had driven me up to his mother

20:11

Leah's house in Castara, a fishing village

20:13

on Tobago's Leeward coast. We

20:16

sat on Leah's stone porch,

20:18

which was painted fuchsia and

20:20

emerald, drinking coffee and watching

20:22

black-throated mango hummingbirds come to

20:24

ceramic feeders. Each bird

20:26

hung stationary in the still air for a

20:29

few seconds, whirring its wings.

20:32

Beyond the porch a pair of wooden pierogue

20:34

boats crested the breakers. Arthur,

20:37

a patriotic Tobagonian, was

20:39

keen to complain. I

20:42

had heard him on the topic before. It

20:44

was an obsession and it went like this. When

20:47

the British sailed off, we drive on the

20:49

left because of them, by the way, we

20:51

and Trinidad were like siblings and the

20:54

Brits said to the bigger one, you

20:56

must let your younger sister develop. But

20:59

the Trinidadians didn't let us develop.

21:02

I'm 58 and this battle has

21:04

been going on since I was a child. The

21:07

proper name of this twin island

21:09

Caribbean Republic close to Venezuela is

21:12

Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidad

21:14

occupies more than 95% of the landmass. Tobago

21:18

is half the size of the Isle of Man.

21:22

Nineteen miles of blue Caribbean water

21:24

separates the two islands. The

21:27

population is 1.5 million of

21:30

whom Tobagonians account for 60,000, just 4%.

21:36

Most of these Tobagonians, including Arthur,

21:39

support the Home Rule

21:41

advocating progressive democratic patriots,

21:44

a new party which has even set

21:46

out a pathway to independence. Many

21:49

islanders believe that the union with

21:51

Trinidad has led to neglect of

21:53

the Tobagonian infrastructure and loss

21:55

of cultural identity. Leah

21:58

appeared with bowls of leafy. She

22:02

took her turn at Trinidad bashing.

22:05

They are strangling us. Anything

22:08

we want to do has to be referred over there, she told

22:10

me. My niece is a teacher, and

22:12

they practically have to ask Port of Spain if

22:14

they can change a light bulb in a classroom,

22:16

she went on, referring to the

22:19

home of the national government, situated,

22:21

of course, in Trinidad. As

22:24

the sun began to set with its

22:26

tropical haste, we set out in the

22:28

car on the sinuous north side road

22:30

for the Tobagan capital, Scarborough. When

22:33

we stopped at a petrol station, Arthur turned

22:35

towards me before getting out to fill up. They

22:38

make sure the oil is in their control,

22:40

he said, once again referring to Trinidad.

22:43

The country has been exploiting offshore

22:45

oil and liquefied natural gas for

22:48

many decades, but only

22:50

Trinidad has any industrial infrastructure.

22:53

Trinidad also has all the crime,

22:56

also Arthur says. Well,

22:58

you can't have it both ways, I said, pointlessly as

23:01

we set off again. It's either more

23:03

power and more crime, surely, or no power

23:05

and no crime like you have now. Arthur

23:09

returned often to his sibling analogy, Tobago

23:11

as the neglected little sister or brother.

23:15

In the popular Caribbean folk tale of

23:17

Tijon, the smallest sibling triumphs

23:19

when his two arrogant older brothers

23:21

fail the devil's test. I

23:24

was going to ask Arthur if he

23:26

thought Tobago might eventually triumph too, but

23:29

we had stopped at Sunday school, pious

23:32

and silent in the moonlight, as

23:34

it was only Monday. Sarah

23:37

Wheeler, and finally, on Sunday,

23:39

the Africa Cup of Nations

23:41

football tournament will conclude in

23:43

Ivory Coast with a final

23:45

held in a newly built

23:47

stadium in the country's economic

23:49

capital, Abidjan. It's

23:51

been an exciting tournament with many

23:53

surprise results, and has been

23:56

a chance for Ivory Coast to highlight

23:58

the progress it's made since the the

24:00

end of a civil war in 2011. Twenty

24:03

years ago, James Copnall lived

24:05

in Ivory Coast as the

24:07

BBC correspondent. He returned

24:09

to the country to see the

24:12

football and what's changed. The

24:14

journey from Abigail to Boisqué always used to

24:16

make me nervous. The

24:18

route itself was beautiful, slipping

24:21

past the sinuous banks of the lagoon

24:23

that cuts Abigail in half through the

24:25

city's artistic forests and rubber plantations, up

24:28

towards the country's central savannah, where the

24:30

humidity dropped sharply and the heat becomes

24:33

less pressing. Nothing to worry

24:35

about there. But the road was not

24:37

good. The latter part,

24:39

after the political capital, Yamasukuro,

24:41

was nicknamed La Túers, the

24:43

killer. At distressingly frequent

24:45

intervals on the potholed road, you

24:47

would see crumpled cars, or the

24:50

rusting carcasses of overturned lorries. Football

24:53

drove fast and badly, and many paid

24:55

the price. Even this

24:57

wasn't the real reason for my apprehension, though.

25:00

Twenty years ago, when I moved to Ivory Coast,

25:02

the country was still split in half by a

25:05

civil war which had broken out in 2002. Rebels

25:07

known as the Force

25:10

Nouvelle, the new forces, controlled the northern

25:12

half of the country. Boisqué

25:14

was their capital. Getting there

25:16

meant driving along La Túers, hoping

25:18

to avoid an accident, and

25:21

passing through an army checkpoint into a

25:23

no-man's land, rather misleadingly

25:25

called the Confidence Zone. It

25:28

was patrolled by UN and French peacekeepers,

25:30

but everyone knew bandits operated here,

25:32

gunmen who held up buses and

25:35

cars, and took money, vehicles,

25:38

and sometimes even lives. If

25:40

you made it through the Confidence Zone, rebel

25:42

territory awaited, signalled by another

25:44

makeshift checkpoint, a home-made

25:46

barrier of tyre-piercing spikes, some barbed

25:49

wire, and a couple of young

25:51

recruits in military fatigues, brandishing AK-47s.

25:55

If their mood was good, they would wave you

25:57

through with barely a glance. More

26:00

often, though, they would press you like an

26:02

aggressive defender on the football pitch, demanding

26:05

a note or some coins, a

26:07

made-up tax it was hard to avoid paying.

26:10

Now though, with the war long

26:12

finished, the checkpoints removed, with confidence

26:15

truly restored, I sped along a

26:17

motorway, making good time on Immaculate

26:19

Tarmac. Naturres had

26:21

lost her bite. There are new

26:24

roads all over the country, part of

26:26

a vast development programme linked to the

26:28

Africa Cup of Nations football tournament, which

26:30

Ivory Coast has been hosting to greater

26:32

claim. It's not just roads.

26:35

Stadiums have been constructed, bridges thrown

26:37

up across the lagoon in Abidjan, even

26:40

airports and hospitals have been built. In

26:42

total, more than a billion dollars has been

26:44

spent, a phenomenal amount of money,

26:46

in a country where three-quarters of the population

26:49

live on just a few dollars a day.

26:52

It's a sign of what can be done when a

26:54

country is at peace. We invested a

26:56

lot of money, says Idris Jello,

26:58

the president of the Ivorian Football Federation.

27:01

We use the Africa Cup of Nations as a

27:03

way to build the country and show the world

27:05

we are back. And

27:08

so, when the motorway arrived at the

27:10

outskirts of Bwake, the rebel checkpoint had

27:12

been replaced by a more official, far

27:14

less intimidating way of making money, Immaculate

27:17

Tullbooth. In Bwake, most

27:19

of the traces of a decade of conflict

27:21

and instability, which came to an end in

27:23

2011, had vanished. I

27:26

did find one building I recognised. It

27:29

had been used by the new forces rebels and

27:31

was bombed by the Ivorian Air Force. Two

27:34

decades on, its windows still hadn't

27:36

been replaced, and the right top

27:38

corner of the roof was crumpled and crushed.

27:41

A building turned into the approximation of

27:43

a snarl. But

27:45

when you walked round the corner,

27:47

a mural had been painted on

27:49

the bombed-out structure, two figures looking out

27:51

from a background of bright, primary, cheerful

27:54

colours. Adlin, a young Bwake

27:56

resident, was showing me round. in

28:00

2002 she was at school. All

28:03

we heard was that this person has

28:05

died. That person has died,

28:07

she explained. So she and her

28:09

family fled. Now she's back. "'Bwake

28:12

is beautiful now,' she said with a

28:14

smile. Almost everyone I

28:16

met, from old friends to new faces,

28:19

politicians to football fans, wanted to stress

28:21

how the country had changed. One

28:24

man I met, I'll call him André, had

28:26

a different story to tell. His

28:28

simple roadside bar had been destroyed to

28:30

make the place look pretty for the

28:33

tournament,' he said. The

28:35

Africa Cup of Nations and its associated

28:37

development projects have made losers as well

28:39

as winners. All the

28:41

same, hosting such a gathering

28:44

of teams, supporters and officials from

28:46

24 countries across the

28:48

continent in gleaming new stadiums and

28:50

smart hotels, would have been simply

28:53

inconceivable when I lived here. Fear,

28:56

distrust and stagnation have given way

28:58

to a country able to put

29:00

on a show, not

29:02

least of its own best qualities. It's

29:05

good to be back." James

29:07

Coppnall. And that's all for today.

29:09

We'll be back again next week

29:11

on both Thursday and Saturday morning.

29:14

Do join us. I

29:17

think the power of the show was crazy back then.

29:20

The X Factor promised to turn ordinary

29:22

people into pop stars. We stood there

29:24

behind the doors when 16 million people

29:26

were about to watch you go on

29:28

stage and Simon just said actually like, good

29:31

luck girls, good luck. I'm

29:33

Chi Chi Zendu. For years I was a

29:36

BBC showbiz journalist who covered

29:38

every twist and turn. I

29:41

want to go behind the scenes

29:43

to find out from staff and

29:45

contestants what it was like. You

29:47

don't just want average people. You want to, you

29:49

know, it was so bad. They were comical. I

29:52

feel like I was humiliated just for the

29:54

entertainment. If the show ever come back and they

29:56

said to me, Sam, will you come on and do it again?

29:58

I'd be like, what time do you want to go? Over

30:01

six episodes I'm looking back at the

30:03

good and the bad of one of

30:05

Britain's biggest TV shows. For BBC

30:08

Radio 4, this is Offstage Inside

30:10

the X Factor. Listen

30:13

on BBC Sounds. There's

30:18

something magical about unboxing. When

30:21

you unbox BritBox, you uncover a

30:23

world of British entertainment. Stream

30:26

the UK's most brilliant series, including

30:28

new and upcoming seasons of Shetland,

30:31

Father Brown and Death in Paradise.

30:33

Plus new originals like Payback, Irving

30:35

Welsh's Crime and Archie, the story

30:38

of Hollywood's greatest leading man, Cary

30:40

Grant. Unbox BritBox and escape

30:42

to the best of British TV. Stream

30:45

with a free trial at britbox.com