UNMIS Radio Miraya: New drama series aimed at enlightening the public on the 11-13 April presidential and legislative elections in Sudan

Note that the national elections are provided for in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed in 2005, ending the conflict between northern and southern Sudan. The UN's mission in southern Sudan (UNMIS) is tasked with assisting both parties implement their commitments under the CPA.

Sudan: UN mission takes to the airwaves with civic education drama
From UN News Centre, 30 March 2010:

Photo: Ballot papers being transported to Upper Nile State elections logistics warehouse in Sudan

The United Nations Mission in Sudan is taking to the airwaves with a new radio drama series aimed at raising public awareness on various issues, including measures related to the ongoing process of implementing the peace accord that ended two decades of civil war in Africa’s largest country.

The series, ‘Tahed Shadjera Ardeb,’ Arabic for ‘Under the Tamarind Tree,’ can be heard on Radio Miraya, which is run by the mission, known as UNMIS. The initial programmes will dramatize themes aimed at enlightening the public on the 11-13 April presidential and legislative elections in Sudan.

The national elections are provided for in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed in 2005, ending the conflict between northern and southern Sudan.

The series will also tackle other themes, including domestic violence, the reintegration of former fighters into society and agriculture.

The programmes are produced in simple Arabic and broadcast on Radio Miraya’s southern and northern Sudan programming streams at 12:08 local time. Repeats can be heard in the evening.

Radio drama is considered an effective way of promoting debate on sensitive social and political issues in a compelling way, while also reaching populations with low literacy rates and who have limited access to information because they live in remote areas.

UNMIS runs Radio Miraya in partnership Fondation Hirondelle, a Swiss non-governmental organization (NGO).

Two decades of war between the Sudanese Government and the southern-based Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) left more than two million people dead and displaced an estimated four million others.

UNMIS is tasked with assisting both parties implement their commitments under the CPA.