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From Our Own Correspondent: The Year of Living Turbulently

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2020microphone

26/12/2020 GMT

The Year of Living Turbulently

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, The Year of Living Turbulently

Reflecting on some of the most striking moments in 2020 our correspondents have shared

The most striking moments in 2020 our correspondents have shared and the stories which have made them think - from the USA, Belarus and Nigeria

Pascale Harter reflects on some of the most striking moments in 2020 shared by our correspondents and the stories which have made them think.

Two stories which have dominated the year are the Coronavirus pandemic and a rising swell of public protest around the world. Nick Bryant in New York found himself covering both the rise in Covid 19 cases in the city and the Black Lives Matter demonstrations following the killing of the George Floyd. As all this was happening, his daughter was born and he wrote her a letter considering the times we are living in - and the prospects for America's future.

There were demonstrations of a different kind in Belarus. The long-term head of state Alexander Lukashenko, who has been the country’s first and only President since its independence from the former USSR, was again declared the winner of elections in August. They were widely believed to have been rigged. Tens of thousands of Belarussians did the previously unthinkable and gathered to protest against the result and his rule. Steve Rosenberg got a taste of state tactics as he went to cover the story.

In Nigeria, the #EndSARS movement made it clear police brutality wasn't just an American issue. Mayeni Jones reported on the response to a wave of protests directed against a notorious anti-robbery police squad  which had been implicated in a number of killings, as well as cases of torture, kidnap, rape and extortion. After weeks of unrest in Nigerian cities, some unarmed demonstrators were shot dead, allegedly by members of the armed forces. Official  investigations were opened - but she was sceptical about how much of the search for the truth was just theatre.

(Image: Red 2020 sign and microphone with "On The Air" sign. Credit: doomu, iStock / Getty Images Plus)

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