Aug 23

BlackBerry phones and Spot the dog

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Jacquie McNish, author and former Senior Correspondent at the Wall Street Journal.We start with the former co-CEO of BlackBerry, who recounts the company's remarkab ... Show More

59m 7s

Aug 15

Indonesian history

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.Our guest is Dr Anne-Lot Hoek, a research fellow at the International Institution of Social History in Amsterdam.This week, we’re looking at key moments in Indonesian history, as ... Show More

50m 20s

Aug 9

Nagasaki bomb and Brazil’s biggest bank heist

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Simone Turchetti, Professor of the History of Science and Technology, at The University of Manchester in the UK. It's 80 years since the US dropped atomic bombs on ... Show More

50m 52s

Nov 2020

How Ethiopian rebels took power in 1991

In May 1991, the brutal Ethiopian dictator, Colonel Mengistu and his miltary regime were on the verge of collapse after years of civil war. The end came when a Tigrayan-led rebel movement advanced on the capital Addis Ababa and took power. They would rule for Ethiopia for decades ... Show More

11m 6s

Feb 2023

Ethiopia, Eritrea and border wars

Relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia have historically been difficult. Eritrea won independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year war. A bitter border war between the two countries began a few years later. But by 2020, Eritrea sent troops to fight alongside the Ethiopian go ... Show More

19m 17s

Jan 2021

Libya's Arab uprising

In the early months of 2011 demonstrators took to the streets across the Arab world in what became known as the Arab spring. In February, protests in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi soon turned into an armed revolt seeking to overthrow the dictator, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. S ... Show More

14 m

Jul 2023

The Hidden War

How does a country go from its leader winning the Nobel Peace Prize to all-out war in just one year? That's the question surrounding Ethiopia, which has become embroiled in one of the deadliest wars of the 21st century. The U.S. has called it an ethnic cleansing campaign against ... Show More

52m 24s

Mar 2023

Rise of ISIS

This episode contains graphic references of violence and tortureThe rise of Islamic State (ISIS) stands as one of the darkest legacies of the Iraq War. Founded as Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the organisation joined the conflict in 2003 by attacking not only Coalition troops but Saddam Huss ... Show More

44m 40s

Jan 2022

Episode 38: The third fitna

Yazid III’s successful coup against Walid II blew up the tribal feud. Syrian unity had long undergirded Umayyad power in Syria and from there, the entire caliphate; it had now been torn asunder in bloody warfare. Even when the clan finally had someone strong enough to make a play ... Show More

25m 51s

Mar 2021

Why are Eritrean troops in Ethiopia?

It’s been a war of narratives.Conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region has been going on for months now - and troops from neighbouring Eritrea have been accused of joining the fight.And that’s not the end of the story.The UN and human rights groups have also blamed them for some of t ... Show More

11m 47s

Nov 2023

The Arab- Israeli War: Yom Kippur War 1973

Also known as the October War and the Ramadan War, this conflict was initiated by Egypt and Syria on October 6, 1973, as a surprise attack on Israel during the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur and the Muslim month of Ramadan. It was motivated by a desire among Arab states to regain ... Show More

39m 29s

Apr 2022

Can a “Humanitarian Truce” Help End Ethiopia’s Civil War?

After almost seventeen months of devastating civil war in Ethiopia, the federal government on 24 March announced what it called a humanitarian truce. The offer would ostensibly allow aid into Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, which has, in effect, been under a blockade for month ... Show More

1h 8m

The fall of Addis Ababa