Can Somalia's embattled president unite his country against the armed group al-Shabab?

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Film by Nidhi Dutt and Daniel Boaden

People & Power investigates the environmental consequences of palm oil plantations in equatorial Africa.

There are few products so ubiquitous as palm oil. You can find its derivatives in chocolate, shampoo, toothpaste, detergent, ice cream, floor polish and a host of other products filling supermarket shelves.

Extracted from the fruit of the tropically-grown oil palm tree (Elaeis guineensis), it has become so versatile and sought after that the growing economies of Indonesia and Malaysia, the world's two largest producers, make some $40bn a year from its production and export.

Given that by 2020 global demand for palm oil is expected to double and then triple by 2050, it is no wonder that other developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan West Africa where the tree originates, have been looking enviously at Southeast Asia and hoping to emulate that success.

But palm oil cultivation does not come cost-free. If not done sustainably, say conservationists, it can have disastrous consequences for people and the environment. In Indonesia, for example, it has played a major role in deforestation which has seen the loss of more than 6 million hectares of primary forest over the last 15 years.

As rainforests are home to least half of this planet's species of plants, animals and insects, the negative impact on global biodiversity can only be imagined. In addition, indigenous communities are also destroyed as people who have lived happily off the forest's resources for generations, often do not own the land (at least not in a form recognised by governments, corporations and their lawyers) and are frequently displaced to make way for new plantations.

Boosting Cameroon's economy
It is against this background that the Central and West African state of Cameroon has been trying to get a palm oil industry off - or rather into - the ground. Its President Paul Biya, who has held office since 1982, has been looking for ways to give Cameroon's economy a boost.

His country is not as poverty-stricken as some on the continent. It has some modest oil resources and favourable conditions for agriculture and is comparatively stable politically, but it is not immune from many of the problems associated with developing nations, from chronically high unemployment and an inequitable distribution of income to corruption and inadequate public infrastructure.

Cameroon is also over-reliant on imports, which makes it susceptible to rising prices and food insecurity. According to the UN, more than 40 percent of the population are living under the poverty line, while over one-third of its children are suffering from chronic malnutrition.

Palm oil then, would seem to offer good prospects for additional growth. The tree is native to the region and the climate is perfect for its cultivation. And of course, there are plenty of international agribusiness conglomerates looking for suitable places in West Africa in which to replicate the stellar profits enjoyed by the industry in Asia.

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People & Power investigates how Chad is responding to the threat posed by Boko Haram across West Africa.

We investigate allegations that despite its new democratic institutions, police torture continues in Tunisia.

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Last December, an Al Jazeera network investigation examined shocking claims that the government of Kenya has been running secret police death squads, tasked with assassinating suspected terrorists and criminals. At the time the Kenyan government strongly refuted the allegations but reports and rumours in Kenya about extra-judicial killings have continued to proliferate.

Ten months on, People and Power asked Mohammed Ali, one of Kenya’s top independent investigative journalists, to find out why.

In this deeply worrying film, Ali discovers that mysterious killings are indeed continuing amid a culture of apparent impunity, leaving Kenyan security forces open to suspicions that they are unaccountable and seemingly out of control.

He discovers that over 1,500 Kenyan citizens have been killed by the police since 2009, and that statistically, Kenyans are currently five times more likely to be shot by a policeman than a criminal.

With often little or no investigation by the Kenyan state into the circumstances surrounding these deaths, he finds evidence to suggest that an increasing number of Kenyan police officers may be complicit in what have been described as summary executions of suspects.

Even the Kenyan army, seen by most Kenyans as less corrupt and more trustworthy than the police, is now allegedly implicated in the torture and forced disappearance of terror suspects in the country’s northeastern region.

This film contains graphic images of violence and its aftermath that some viewers may find disturbing.

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Jamaica likes to portray itself as a tropical paradise - its sunshine and laid-back atmosphere attracting millions of tourists every year. But behind this idyllic picture lies a more sinister truth: this is a nation where child sex abuse is endemic.

According to the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition, 40 percent of Jamaicans say that their first experience of sexual contact was forced and while still under the age of consent. More often than not, the perpetrator was someone close to home: a family member, teacher, community or religious leader.

Earlier this year, the Jamaican government launched "Breaking Silence," an awareness campaign encouraging victims to come forward. It has been heralded as an important step in combating the cycle of abuse. But, human rights groups say that taboos about reporting incest, rape and the abuse of power by older men are so entrenched that thousands of young Jamaican girls still continue to suffer in silence.

This year, Europe has seen unprecedented numbers of refugees and other migrants cross over its borders - well in excess of 350,000 people, who - driven by fear of war and terror or by poverty and the promise of a better life - have made the treacherous journey by land and sea out of the Middle East and Africa.

Very few of them will have official status or the right documents, most are short of money and don't know how they will survive, but all hope they will find a safe haven - be it temporary or permanent - in a continent that seems peaceful, prosperous and secure. And for some - the fortunate minority - that is indeed what they will find. They will be taken care of. But many won't. Desperate, vulnerable and ever fearful of deportation as illegal immigrants, they will be forced to live on the margins, to go wherever they can, and take on whatever work they can get to survive.

And that can lead them wide open to exploitation.

This is the illuminating story of just one group of last summer's arrivals: migrants into southern Italy who became reluctant recruits in a vast army of casual farm labourers. It is a story that says as much about modern Europe as it does about the migrants as the story touches the tens of millions of the continent's citizens who purchase or consume one of Italy's most famous foodstuffs: its rich, sweet, sun-ripened tomatoes.

Just a few decades ago, Ethiopia was a country defined by its famines, particularly between 1983-1985 when in excess of half a million people starved to death as a consequence of drought, crop failure and a brutal civil war.

Against this backdrop, in recent years, Ethiopia has been experiencing stellar economic growth. The headline statistics are certainly remarkable: the country is creating millionaires faster than any other in Africa; output from farming, Ethiopia’s dominant industry, has tripled in a decade; the capital Addis Ababa is experiencing a massive construction boom; and the last six years have seen the nation’s GDP grow by a staggering 108 percent.

But it is not all positive news.

Around 90 percent of the population of 87 million still suffers from numerous deprivations, ranging from insufficient access to education to inadequate health care; average incomes are still well below $1500 a year; and more than 30 million people still face chronic food shortages.

Many critics say that the growth seen in agriculture, which accounts for almost half of Ethiopia’s economic activity and a great deal of its recent success, is actually being driven by an out of control ‘land grab', as multinational companies and private speculators vie to lease millions of acres of the country’s most fertile territory from the government at bargain basement prices.

At the ministry of agriculture in Addis Ababa, this land-lease programme is often described as a "win-win" because it brings in new technologies and employment and, supposedly, makes it easier to improve health care, education and other services in rural areas.

"Ethiopia needs to develop to fight poverty, increase food supplies and improve livelihoods and is doing so in a sustainable way," said one official.

But according to a host of NGO’s and policy advocates, including Oxfam, Human Rights Watch and the Oakland Institute, the true consequences of the land grabs are almost all negative. They say that in order to make such huge areas available for foreign investors to grow foodstuffs and bio-fuels for export - and in direct contravention of Ethiopia’s obligations under international law - the authorities are displacing hundreds of thousands of indigenous peoples, abusing their human rights, destroying their traditions, trashing the environment, and making them more dependent on food aid than ever before.

The most controversial element of the government’s programme is known as 'villagisation' - the displacement of people from land they have occupied for generations and their subsequent resettlement in artificial communities.

In Gambella, where two ethnic groups, the Anuaks and the Nuers, predominate, it has meant tens of thousands of people have been forced to abandon a traditional way of life. One such is Moot, an Anuak farmer who now lives in a government village far from his home.

Despite growing internal opposition and international criticism, the Ethiopian government shows no sign of scaling the programme back. According to the Oakland Institute, since 2008, an area the size of France has already been handed over to foreign corporations. Over the next few years an area twice that size is thought to be earmarked for leasing to investors.

So what does all this mean for the people on the ground? In Ethiopia – Land for Sale, filmmakers Veronique Mauduy and Romain Pelleray try and find out.

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To much of the world, Somalia has a fearsome reputation. It is seen as one of the most dangerous places on the planet - a failed state that is widely believed to be home to warlords, pirates and terrorists.

But in the north of the country, at least, the reality is different.

Somaliland is an autonomous enclave with its own flourishing capital city, Hargeisa. Though a long way off from receiving international recognition as an independent state, it is a haven of peace and stability when compared with the rest of Somalia.

But Somaliland has its dark side. Within living memory its citizens fell victim to the most savage of state-sponsored atrocities. General Siad Barre - the ruthless dictator who ruled Somalia from 1969 to 1991 - went to war with the clans who inhabited the area. Believing them to be supporting a rebellion against his regime, he took revenge by sending in his army with a mandate to "kill all but the crows".

The city of Hargeisa was virtually destroyed during intense and pitiless bombardment. Many thousands of people were killed or driven into exile. Barre's soldiers, meanwhile, tortured and murdered as many as 50,000 others - most of them civilians - and buried their bodies in mass graves. Now, as those who still live in this region try to secure their future, some feel those past agonies should be re-examined and those responsible held to account.

In this exclusive two-part investigation, People and Power meets a community coming to terms with the horrors of the past and joins forces with a group of forensic investigators and human rights activists attempting to bring an alleged war criminal, Yusuf Abdi Ali, also known as Colonel Tukeh, to account.



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To much of the world, Somalia has a fearsome reputation. It is seen as one of the most dangerous places on the planet - a failed state that is widely believed to be home to warlords, pirates and terrorists.

But in the north of the country, at least, the reality is different.

Somaliland is an autonomous enclave with its own flourishing capital city, Hargeisa. Though a long way off from receiving international recognition as an independent state, it is a haven of peace and stability when compared with the rest of Somalia.

But Somaliland has its dark side. Within living memory its citizens fell victim to the most savage of state-sponsored atrocities. General Siad Barre - the ruthless dictator who ruled Somalia from 1969 to 1991 - went to war with the clans who inhabited the area. Believing them to be supporting a rebellion against his regime, he took revenge by sending in his army with a mandate to "kill all but the crows".

The city of Hargeisa was virtually destroyed during intense and pitiless bombardment. Many thousands of people were killed or driven into exile. Barre's soldiers, meanwhile, tortured and murdered as many as 50,000 others - most of them civilians - and buried their bodies in mass graves. Now, as those who still live in this region try to secure their future, some feel those past agonies should be re-examined and those responsible held to account.

In this exclusive two-part investigation, People and Power meets a community coming to terms with the horrors of the past and joins forces with a group of forensic investigators and human rights activists attempting to bring an alleged war criminal, Yusuf Abdi Ali, also known as Colonel Tukeh, to account.

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Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/