Radio Ndarason International (RNI)
The main role of this radio is to serve as a tool against extreme violence. It serves as a platform to promote a local discourse among all actors affected by the current crisis in the Lake Chad region.
Based on the assumption that dialogue is the necessary condition to find a peaceful solution is lasting, which in turn leads us to a better quality of life.
The radio serves as a mechanism to convince people that they have a future in the region. Put in broader terms – while it is believed that a better life is possible in the Lake Chad region, the need and desire to migrate in order to settle elsewhere diminishes.
The radio, in partnership with the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) broadcasts content in Kanembu and Kanuri languages in order to help stabilize the Lake Chad region by stimulating constructive dialogue between everyone involved in the current crisis.
Frequencies and broadcast times
The RNI radio network broadcasts on shortwave across the whole region and beyond, three hours of programmes every morning and three hours in the evening. In addition we have an FM transmitter in N’Djamena (107.1 FM) and another at Bol beside Lake Chad.
History
The radio started broadcasting in 2015 as a one hour a day service based in Kano, Nigeria called Dandal Kura Radio International (DKRI). In early 2016 we moved the studios to Maiduguri, NE Nigeria and began broadcasting 6 hours a day of mostly Kanuri language content.
For administrative reasons in 2016 we moved the headquarters of the operation to Ndjamena, Chad, but continued broadcasting as before. The next phase of development envisages the growing importance of N’Djamena as the key production and administration centre for the network. To reflect this development, a more regionally inclusive name for the radio is gradually being phased in – Radio Ndarason Internationale1 (RNI).
M&E; The growing place the radio occupies is evident in a just completed survey carried out in the Chadian capital as well as in the Lake Chad area. Survey results show that DKRI is a key driver in the effort to create a positive dialogue in the region, but its work is not complete.
These are some of the key findings by ORB International2, a US-based research organisation specialising in quantitative and qualitative research in complex environments:3
- Listeners in Chad have an extremely positive idea (97%) of the radio
- Over three quarters of listeners say that RNI meets their needs and
- Listeners are very positive about the RNI’s offerings and areparticularly positive about broadcasts and content in the Kanuri and Kanembu languages.
- Listeners appreciate RNI’s role as a source of unbiased news
- Listeners (in Chad) express a clear (89%) preference for more content from N’Djamena
- More than half of the listeners surveyed express increased support for the MNJTF because of listening to our radio.
- Overall, listener support for extremism, violence and Boko Haram is decreasing since listening to Radio Ndarason International.
