Leslie Lefkow, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch’s Africa division, discusses the worsening situation in Somalia since the 2006 Ethiopian invasion, the media’s preference for reporting on piracy instead of humanitarian disasters, the appearance that the U.S. helped destabilize Somalia simply to apprehend a few suspects from the 1998 embassy bombings, how the U.S. is more careful distributing food-aid than weapons, increasing Al Shabaab radicalism, Ethiopia’s hosting of extraordinary rendition victims and the extreme risks journalists and human rights activists take in Somalia.
For those interested – a short list of news sources that cover Africa more in depth: Voice of America, BBC, Garowe Online, Al Jazeera.
MP3 here. (40:45)
Leslie Lefkow, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch’s Africa division, has specialized expertise on Sudan, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, and Kenya. Lefkow focuses on investigating and documenting abuses in Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan, abuses in armed conflicts, and other issues requiring rapid response in sub-Saharan Africa. Before joining Human Rights Watch, she worked as a humanitarian affairs advisor in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone. Lefkow is a graduate of Columbia Law School and Bryn Mawr College.
