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BBC World Service West and Central Africa

The Fifth Floor

Factual: Life Stories

Global stories from the BBC’s 40 Language Services, with Faranak Amidi

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services.

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services

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The Fifth Floor: Indonesia's Child Soldiers

Documentaries

Ronald Regang and Iskandar Slameth

11/05/2018 GMT

Indonesia's Child Soldiers

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, Indonesia's Child Soldiers

Former enemies, now friends: Ronald and Iskander now campaign for peace

Indonesia's former child soldiers; Egyptians embracing curly hair; reporting Armenia; Brazil's 1940s art donation; Hometown Butare; K-pop in North Korea.  With David Amanor.

In 1999 Christians and Muslims on the Indonesian island of Ambon turned on each other.  Thousands were killed, but one aspect of the conflict never reported before is the involvement of child soldiers.  As part of the Crossing Divides season BBC Indonesia's Endang Nurdin went to the island to meet Ronald and Iskander, former child combatants from opposing sides, now working together for peace.  

Curly hair in Egypt
In Egypt, long, straight hair is considered beautiful despite the fact that most Egyptian women have naturally curly hair.  But wavy hair is making a comeback, according to BBC Monitoring's Dina Aboughazala who grew up in Egypt, and knows all about hair straighteners.

Armenia's unlikely prime minister 
How did a protest led by the relatively unknown MP Nicol Pashinyan oust long-standing leader Serzh Sargsyan and land Pashinyan the job of Prime Minister?  BBC Russian journalist Sergey Goryashko has been reporting from Yerevan.   

Brazil's art donation 
An exhibition of paintings recently opened at the Brazilian embassy in London.  It has an extraordinary story behind it: the paintings were a donation to Britain's war effort in 1944, but didn't go down well with the critics.  Pablo Uchoa of BBC Brazil tells us why.

Hometown Butare
In a new series, we ask colleagues on the Fifth Floor to take us to their hometown, and share their favourite places and memories.  First up, Butare in Rwanda with Prudent Nsengiyumva.

K-pop in North Korea
Questions for BBC Korean editor Su-Min Hwang: how popular is South Korean pop music in the north? And how do people get hold of it, in a closed society where anyone caught listening could face imprisonment or death?  

Image: Ronald Regang and Iskandar Slameth
Credit: BBC

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