Unreported World - Season 26 / Year 2025

The civil war in Sudan has forced more people from their homes than anywhere else on earth. Krishnan Guru-Murthy gains rare access to one Sudanese region, to find over a million people on the brink of starvation. Since the start of the war between the Sudanese government and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), 11.3 million people have fled their homes. Over half of the population, around 30 million people, need humanitarian assistance. Famine has been declared in parts of the country, including areas of the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan. This semi-autonomous area has become a refuge to over a million people fleeing bombings, executions and rape. Krishnan travels deep inside the territory and meets one nurse caring for around 5000 people. Her work bears witness to the scale of the current crisis, as hungry children line up to be seen, and old men die alone in tents. To survive, people scavenge - eating leaves, insects and even rats. In a nearby hospital, one of just three doctors in the region explains that international assistance is nowhere to be seen, as other conflicts like Ukraine and Gaza steal the headlines. Survivors report of horrendous ethnic violence, adding to the catalogue of war crimes being alleged, including sexual violence. 

Unreported World investigates a so-called 'discipline camp' in South Africa. The camps promise to reform children who can't be controlled by their parents. But reporter Sahar Zand discovers an abusive side to its methods. South Africa's youth are in crisis. Drug use is surging, as is violence in the classroom. Parents are struggling to control their children and a thriving 'troubled teen' industry has emerged. At the forefront of this movement is 25-year-old Prince Motlou, who says his Rising Stars Generation discipline camp offers military-style training that will send hundreds of children back to their parents with newfound respect. But it becomes clear that this is no ordinary boot camp; that it's something far more sinister, with children marching for hours in the heat and without water. Children are searched for contraband, and physical violence is used despite corporal punishment being illegal in South Africa. Some children come forward with shocking allegations of sexual abuse. One of Prince Motlou's previous camps is under police investigation after two boys drowned. Motlou, who likes to be known as Emperor General, denies any wrongdoing. 

Unreported World reports from France on the feminists taking the far-right to within touching distance of power. Darshna Soni talks to the growing movement of students, journalists and activists who believe migrants are a problem. Last year, for the first time, the far-right National Rally came close to securing power with 33% of the vote in the first round of parliamentary elections. Although it was defeated in subsequent rounds, the far-right party gained 38 seats in parliament. National Rally has a growing support from women, a new breed of so-called Femo-nationalists waging a fight for the soul of French feminism. Soni meets 20-year-old Kaïna Méné, who's tearing down left-wing posters protesting against the war in Gaza, in favour of her student group, who believe that immigration is a threat to women's safety. Soni tracks down a controversial and social-media-savvy group called the Nemesis Collective, who routinely protest against migration and are linked to groups in the UK associated with far-right extremist Tommy Robinson. When Soni attempts to question Alice Cordier, the group's founder, she's met with a hostile reception. 

Unreported World reports from Brazil, where Elon Musk's Starlink is transforming isolated tribes living in the Amazon. Reporter Guillermo Galdos travels deep inside the rainforest to find out if the internet revolution is for better or worse. The Amazon is the internet's final frontier, and the Javari Valley reserve is home to the largest concentration of uncontacted tribes in the world. Starlink antennas have divided Marubo leaders, who disagree on whether its immediate benefits outweigh the possible long-term loss of their culture and way of life. In the village of São Sebastião, which lies 500 miles by river from the nearest city, Galdos meets Cloves and his 13-year-old son Wany. Cloves introduced Starlink to the village, believing the internet would help with healthcare and education. But the impact of screens showing the outside world was immediate, and in just 18 months most of the village's teenagers have left. On a boat patrol in an area renowned for the illegal smuggling of gold, timber and drugs, Indigenous communities are using Starlink to protect the Amazon's precious resources. But criminals also use the technology to help their operations, and government agencies responsible for the Javari Valley are taking a keen interest in those bringing Starlink to the Amazon.

In Gaza, young couples are getting married amid the destruction. Gaza is under siege, but some are determined to tie the knot anyway. Filmed from December 2024, Unreported World follows two couples trying to live and make plans in al-Mawasi in southern Gaza, which Israel says is a safe zone for the 1.9m displaced residents. There is also the work of wedding photographer Najah reflecting on how the splendour of Gaza's famously elaborate weddings has changed since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, prompting an Israeli bombardment and blockade that's left between 48,000 to 61,000 Palestinians dead. On the outskirts of one of southern Gaza's many camps for displaced people, Hamza plans to marry his fiancée Nada. Forced to evacuate northern Gaza, Hamza buys and builds a marital home - in his case a tent - with the help of his family. Mohammad and Shaimaa are determined to marry but struggle with price increases and the idea of starting a new life in a displacement camp. As a fragile ceasefire takes hold early in 2025, the two couples go back to their homes in northern Gaza, where they confront the challenges of having to rebuild again.

How a controversial new generation of young women known as slay queens are monetising South Africa's dating culture. Slay queens flaunt luxury lifestyles online funded by wealthy 'blessers' - inspiring both admiration and anger. As Symeon Brown reports, to their followers, they're glamorous entrepreneurs breaking free from poverty and oppression. To their critics, they're dangerous gold diggers who blur the lines between dating, sex work - and scams.

After a 2016 peace deal following a 50-year civil war, Colombia has once again become engulfed in violence, as guerrilla groups battle for control of coca fields and lucrative smuggling routes. In the past year alone, more than 50,000 people have been forced from their homes and civilians face the daily threat of killings, forced recruitment and displacement. Guillermo Galdos travels deep into the Catatumbo region to understand the fight for cocaine production and gains rare access to Colombia's special forces as they launch operations against guerrilla fighters.

In Los Angeles, families are living in fear of President Trump's anti-immigration drive, as ICE are tasked to make 3000 arrests a day, leading to anger and resistance.

In Israel, a murder epidemic is devastating Arab-Israeli communities. Krishnan Guru-Murthy investigates why most of these killings go unsolved. With much focus on the conflict in Gaza and rising hostilities in the West Bank, Krishnan asks why hundreds of Arab-Israeli citizens are being murdered each year in Israel itself? Arab citizens make up one-fifth of Israel's population, but nearly three-quarters of its murder victims. When Israeli-Jews are murdered around 75 percent of cases are solved, compared to around 15 percent when the victim is Arab-Israeli. Krishnan discovers Arab organised crime families tightening their grip on towns long neglected by the state. In some areas, residents say they're living under gang rule and accuse Israel's right-wing government of turning a blind eye to the killings. In the coastal town of Jisr az-Zarqa, Krishnan meets families mourning sons shot dead in the street and mothers who say the police never even came to take witness statements. He meets a former gangster who says weapons from Israel's own police and army are being sold to criminals. While community figures and an opposition politician accuse the government of deliberately abandoning Arab citizens to lawlessness and fear, Israel's police say it's doing everything it can to stop the violence.

In Tenerife, squatters are taking over homes prompting hotels and property owners to turn to hard-man evictors to get them out. The Canary Islands attract 16 million tourists a year, but a deepening housing crisis is turning the Spanish region into a battleground, as people who say they can no longer afford soaring rents are occupying other people's properties instead. Under Spanish law, once people occupy a property for 48 hours, a court order is needed to evict them - and this can take years. Reporter Anja Popp joins a controversial new force of private eviction teams employed by property owners.