It’s not very often at the UN that we get the chance to talk to talented musicians whose work can help to promote the Organization’s goals of peace, human rights and development; but that’s exactly what happened when Mali songwriter Vieux Farka Touré agreed to tell us all about his brand new composition, A Song For The Sahel. 

In partnership with the humanitarian coordination office OCHA, Mr. Touré set out to write a message of hope to the people of the Sahel, a region where spreading violence has left almost 29 million people in need of life-saving assistance and protection; that’s five million more people than last year.  

Here he is now, talking - and singing - to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.