World Tour: DRC unveils new government, and malaria in Burundi

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour with WORLD Africa reporter Onize Ohikere.

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: DRC unveils new government—We start today here in Africa.

Leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo announced the formation of a new coalition government on Monday. It took them eight months to reach the agreement.

AUDIO: [Sound of people buying newspapers]

Residents of Kinshasa flocked to newsstands to find out which politicians got appointments in the new government. Seventeen percent of them are women.

The new government faces two big challenges: security and Ebola.

Militants linked to ISIS attacked a town in the central part of the country last week. They abducted 200 women and children, including a doctor and a technician from an Anglican Mission Hospital.

Burundi facing malaria outbreak—Meanwhile in neighboring Burundi, officials are struggling to contain a major malaria outbreak.

AUDIO: [Sound of baby crying]

The disease has sickened about half the country’s 12 million residents. More than 18-hundred people have died.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a top-level travel alert for the country.

Rohingya mark ‘Genocide Day’—Next we go to Bangladesh.

AUDIO: [Sound of singing, cheering]

Nearly 200,000 Rohingyas in refugee camps there marked the second anniversary of their flight from Myanmar.

The exodus began after Myanmar’s military launched a campaign against the ethnic Muslim minority group. They burned homes and businesses and slaughtered fleeing villagers. Last week, the U.N. declared the campaign had “genocidal intent.”

More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh to escape.

Last week, Myanmar agreed to let several hundred families return home. But they all refused. This community leader explains why.

AUDIO: So if the Myanmar government wants to repatriate us, they must give us our citizenship to Rohingya identity, number one. Number two is our original homeland. Number three, our safety and security.

The Rohingya do not have citizenship in Myanmar, giving them no legal protection. And without that, most say they won’t go back.

But patience in Bangladesh is running out. Officials insist they won’t force the refugees to leave their camps but say it’s disappointing no one is willing to go home.

Indonesian capital moving to Borneo—And finally, we end today in Indonesia.

AUDIO: [President speaking in Indonesian]

President Joko Widodo announced Monday that the government will move the country’s capital to the sparsely populated island of Borneo.

The current capital, Jakarta, suffers from severe traffic congestion and pollution. It’s also prone to earthquakes and flooding. And subsidence is causing the land to sink. About 10 million people live in Jakarta, with 20 million more living in its greater metropolitan area.

The new capital will be carved out of dense jungle near two other cities. Widodo said officials chose the location because it is near the center of the country. The move could take up to a decade to complete.

That’s this week’s World Tour. For WORLD Radio, I’m Onize Ohikere reporting from Abuja, Nigeria.

(AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu, FILE) In this file photo dated Thursday, Aug.22, 2019, a general view of Nayapara Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. 

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