Erstellt am: 28. 7. 2011 - 14:00 Uhr

Could the drought undermine the rebels in Somalia?

On Today's Reality Check: who are Al-Shabab, and how the crisis in Somalia is affecting their power, and Iran's crackdown on prominent artists opposing the regime.

Human nature dictates that when we are aware of a humanitarian crisis we should keep on talking about it until there is at least some sense of a solution. But like every war or disaster after a few days media fatigue sets in. In the case of the food emergency in the Horn of Africa, we are hearing day after day the depressing tale of hunger and drought, so one of the challenges is to bring something new to the story every time we return to the subject. The subtext to whatever we do of course, is a reminder that people in the region are suffering and ultimately dying.

Journalists and aid workers on the scene are running out of adjectives to describe this depressing situation. When the crisis was first coming to the attention of western media organisations I spoke with an aid worker from the charity Save the Children who had just returned from the major relief camp over the border in Kenya. She painted a graphic picture of parents and children on the brink of death, and they were the lucky ones as they’d made it to where there was a chance of help. The journey itself that the Somalis make is fraught with danger.

Many who start out on foot do so at night and one of the main reasons for this is that it is easier to bypass the security cordons set up by Al-Shabab fighters under cover of darkness. Al-Shabab are essentially the Taliban of Somalia, they now control huge areas of the country including parts of the capital Mogadishu. However, we’ve heard conflicting statements coming from the militants in recent days sometimes indicating a willingness to allow people to head to the camps, but at other times this is clearly not being allowed to happen. So where do things stand currently with Al-Shabab and why are they so blind to the overwhelming need for Somalis to travel to where they can get help. That’s what we wanted to find out on today’s show. So we hit the phones and got the thoughts of Roger Middleton who is a consultant researcher on the Horn of Africa region at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London.

Also on today's Reality Check:

Iran and a clampdown on actors & film-makers

Iranian actress and film maker Pegah Ahan-garani is 27.
Two weeks ago she was supposed to go to Berlin, to report on the Women's World Cup, but she never got there, because she was arrested in Tehran and held for two weeks in the notorious Evin prison. She was released yesterday.

Iranian sociologist, Saba Farazan, told Joanna Bostock about Pegah Ahangarani and other artists who are being arrested for expressing their views of the political situation in Iran through their arts.

FM4 Reality Check

Monday to friday from 12 to 14. And after the show via Podcast or fm4.orf.at/realitycheck.