only on al jazeera america. what was my crime to be forced out of my country? why am i a refugee? >> syrians speak out against the war ruining their country demanding peace for 2016. ♪ hello this is al jazeera live from our headquarters in doha, i'm laura kyle and also on the program making it official, london president seeks a third term. iran says it is expanding its ballistic missile program and the u.s. considering new sanctions against tehran. plus putting an end to waste, we

visit one shop that is throwing away the concept of packaging. ♪ there has been more fighting in syria as the new year dawns and it's five years into the war that killed a quarter of a million people and sent millions more abroad in search of safety. russian fighter jets blamed for attack in the aleppo countryside and several people have been killed and injured including children. and mohamed has gained access to the front line of syria's war in the southern providence and sent us this update. >> translator: we are now inside shake nearby the building if the town where fierce fighting and hard fought battles between the syrian opposition and the syrian army and

supported by foreign fighters from easy-hezbollah and this is described as street war far in the northern quarters and as well as other areas and controls the main buildings in the town and say the syrian regime used military and technological capabilities in order to storm this town and have been supported by russian air cover. they also indicate they are determined to remain in this town and regain what has been taken by the syrian regime's army. mohamed, al jazeera, shake. many syrians holding out hope for peace in 2016 and we have their story. >> reporter: the play performed in one of the most dangerous places on earth, the syrian city of aleppo is divided.

battered by air strikes, shelling and fighting. despite the intense campaign by russian fighter jets nearby actors invited people to this secret under ground hiding place to put on the latest work, a play about the dreams of a nation hoping for a better life and freedom. dreams that were shattered by violence and uncertainty. >> translator: the play trashed the other side of our personality, it provokes us into acknowledging our sins and mistakes so we can have a golden life. the stage is the best place to tell our story and awaken the world's conscious. >> reporter: the play ends up being a protrail of helpless syrians facing death at home and certain exile and she says she wanted to be a doctor, a dream

she had to abandon when her village in idlib was ravaged by war. her family fled to neighboring turkey where she attends the university and she has chosen a new career and she now wants to become a politician back home. >> translator: i keep asking myself what would my crime to be forced out of my country, why am i a refugee? i speak on behalf of four million syrian refugees now scattered all over the world. i am lucky, i have a shelter and i go to university. but there are many stranded on the border with no shelter and nothing to eat. why do we have to pay the price? >> reporter: a sentiment echoed by those still in syria and those who risk their lives to find refuge abroad and they all feel betrayed by the world.

diplomacy can bring refugees to return home and a great thing and that will largely depend if president assad and opposition are ready for some sort of compromise, al jazeera on turkey's border with syria. ongoing conflicts and territorial disputes in middle east forced millions of people from their homes. and the region has more than five million palestinian refugees who left or fled their homes when israel was created in 1948 and nearly half of them are in jordan which also hosts millions of iraqis who fled following u.s. invasion in 2003, on going violence there has displaced four million more iraqis. the war in syria has made more than seven million people leave their homes and more than four million have left the country and fighting in yemen has internally displaced more than a million people and made nearly 170,000 refugees.

we visited the camp for internally displaced people outside of irbill in northern iraq and spoken to unicef with challenges faced by such people in need. >> reporter: at this camp it has been raining since last night. it is extremely tough conditions for these people. when i tried to walk here these streets are now just mud. we just saw in these pools in this makeshift playground that is been made by the government and the refugee agencies these pools children were playing in these cold conditions and had nothing else to do. these parents and children are going through one of the toughest times in their livelihoods and we are talking to a family who has a five-year-old and they were telling us all their child has seen is this camp. let me speak to the united nation children agency who joins us now and jeffrey welcome. so tell us, put this into perspective, we have been seeing numbers in terms of millions of

people. isn't it a bit overwhelming and put this into perspective for us. >> what we have right now in iraq is three million people internally displaced and nearly 10 million people that need humanitarian assistance. what this means is that one out of every five children in iraq has been displaced or had their education disrupted or somehow been effected by this crisis. these numbers are hard to grapple with and are so huge and large that just looking at them over the years it's an immense difficulty dealing with it and you can see the conditions which people are living and the camps offer refuge but only 10% of the people displaced can come to the camps and 90% of them are living in host community, unfinished buildings with families who have taken them in and their access to education, access to services, access to basic life is limited. >> also jeffrey can you tell us we were earlier discussing about the prospects for some of these children and there are more than

3 1/2 million children just in iraq alone and if the world community doesn't act what is the future for them? >> the children of iraq right now, the one whose have been affected which are as you said a very large number are facing a very grim future, if they don't get access to education, if their parents don't get access to lively hoods and don't get the training they need to be productive adults they won't have much of a future and people of the camp are feeling frustrated and a lot of the people in the camp have been here over a year and don't see any future in site so that is why they are flying iraq and going to places in europe and seeking refuge and taking terrible risks because they don't see how they will maintain this type of lifestyle here. >> talk to us about the challenges that are faced by not just the government but other agencies as well. there is a lack of funds and you were telling me a lack of commitment. >> we are looking at right now if we want to fund the entire

program, just the bare bones and u unicef needs millions with just clothing and we gave to 1900 children in this camp alone and aiming to provide blankets and clothing to over 600,000 children and in this wintertime where we have children walking around bare foot these are the worries now getting through the next months and beyond that try and provide education, try and provide medical service and livelihood and resilience for people. iraq and two families have been killed by a roadside bomb and 16 died mostly women and children, the iraqi army trying to clear roadside bombs laid by i.s.i.l. fighters and left explosive devices across the city after being pushed out of central areas on monday and u.n. says more than 7500 civilians have been killed across iraq in

the past year. rwanda president announced he will run for a third term in office follows last month's constitutional referendum more than 98% of rwanda people allowed him to run again after his current 7 year term ends in 2017. >> translator: you requested me to lead the country again after 2017. given the importance you attach to this, i can only accept. what remains is to follow normal laws and procedures when the time comes but i do not think our aim is to have a president for life nor is it what i would want. sooner rather than later this office will be transferred from one person to another in a manner that will serve a purpose, not merely set an example whether for ourselves or for others. >> reporter: iran's president is ordering defense ministry to expand its ballistic missiles

program. this is in response to reports the u.s. is considering more sanctions. washington condemns iran for test firing missiles. iran says any new measures would put the nuclear deal signed in july at risk. marvin is dean of world studies at the university of tehran and believes iran is justified in his reaction to what he calls u.s. aggression. >> i think the belief in tehran is that what the americans are trying to do is after the agreement between iran and the p five plus one they are looking for new ways to impose the sanctions regime so that they could compensate for any concessions that have been given to iran and we see a pattern. the americans have been confiscateing iranian assets, iranians consider that to be theft and they have been restricting visa applications

for iranians who have dual nationality as well as anyone who travels or who has traveled to iran over the past five years so iranians believe the americans are not being sincere. the united states says one thing but does something else. iranian defense capability is a direct result of consistent u.s. threat against iran which is it self against international law and is it self a terrorist act in the eyes of iranians. still ahead here on al jazeera, security fears on new year's eve so called terror threats prompt evacuations and cancellations across europe plus burundi on a peace march with the president and threat of civil war is never far away. ♪ >> this is it.

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♪ hello you are watching al jazeera and quick reminder of our top stories syrians hoping 2016 will bring an end to the war that killed a quarter of a million people and forced many more to become refugees and the latest violence russian fighter jets being blamed for attack in the aleppo countryside. roadside bomb killed 16 civilians fleeing ramadi in iraq and fighting continues against i.s.i.l. in a number of areas there days after the glove claims to recapture the city. the u.n. says 7500 people were killed across the country last year. rwanda president announced he will seek a third term in office

following his last month's constitutional referendum where they approved extending presidential terms. security forces have been on high alert in several major cities during new year's celebrations and vigilant since paris attacks in november and germany a terror alert in munich after they shut down to train stations just before midnight and had a concrete tip off from a foreign intelligence service indicating i.s.i.l. was planning a suicide attack and munich police chief say syrians and iraqis are believed to is been planning the attack but doesn't know where the potential attackers are. the train stations have since reopened. authorities also on alert in belgium where celebrations were muted and fireworks displace in brussels was cancelled over security concerns and three

people with an alleged plot to carry out an attack there. annual fireworks displayed cancelled in paris and they met 11,000 police and military personnel deployed across the city and on the highest terror alert imposed after the attacks in november. votes counted in central african republic after parliamentary elections and it was peaceful but still nearly a million people living in camps, the biggest camp is in the capitol and far from safe as tonya page reports. >> reporter: people are still living in camps like this because they don't feel like the country is secure enough for them to go home even though the daily tit for tat religious violence has subside and even sow in the camp near bongi main airport is still a very dangerous place. >> translator: for the last two years security has been bad but little by little it's getting better and some insecurity in

the camp with cases of robbery and rape is more and more frequent. >> reporter: here we can sleep at night because there is no shooting but we sleep on mats on the floor, the conditions are bad especially when it rains the water comes inside. >> reporter: the camp is protected by u.n. peace keepers, armed gangs operate here and it was in this camp that it is alleged mostly french soldiers sexually abused children in 2014. the french operation called this wouldn't give us an interview and it's mandated by the u.n. security council but isn't under u.n. command but the u.n. did talk to us in the wake of a damning report by an independent panel which found the u.n. suffered gross institutional failure and not acting quickly enough to protect the children involved when the allegations surfaced. >> we put a committee in place in the mission. this was in place anyway with a special rep and this committee

is meeting any time that we have suspicion, any time we heard an allegation and we handled that very seriously because it's something that the u.n. will not tolerate. we will not tolerate the leadership of the mission and will never tolerate this and this is how it's going to be. >> reporter: children targeted have all been moved out of the camp and u.n. secretary-general pledged urgent review of the panel's recommendations in a country where international support is so necessary to the rebuilding process the international community must now also rebuild trust with central africans. >> reporter: burundi's president says he will fight any african union peace keepers sent to his country and people were hoping the new year would bring peace after nine months of political turmoil and we report from the capitol. >> reporter: deep in the hilly countryside and under heavy security burundi's president takes part in a peace march.

♪ this is the final lap of a peace run organized by young men of country on the brink of civil war. >> translator: it's god that granted us a peaceful festive season and god who will grant burundi people peace in the new year. >> reporter: but peace has been here since the president decided to run for a controversial third term in office, the political tension that followed this, hundreds of people have been killed, the capitol has become the main theatre of conflict. in time neighborhoods have been deserted as thousands try to escape the violence, this is once a bustling district and now almost empty. shops and houses have been abandoned. and it's from here that he fled with his family. >> translator: i don't see peace returning here as long as the president remains in power.

police come every night arresting people and most of the people they take away end up dead and the youth forced to take up arms and defend themselves. >> reporter: burundi people have been flocking to church. ♪ top on the list of their prayers is for calm to return to their country. >> translator: every burundi person has a responsibility to search for peace and fight for human rights and democracy in our country and appeal for them to do that with energy this new year. >> reporter: they do that and hoping the talks that started this week in uganda will diffuse the crisis and present a way out and few ask the president to step down or significantly change his government. al jazeera, burundi. investigators in due by trying to workout what caused a fire at a skyscraper next to the world's tallest building and address hotel went up in flames

just hours before new year's celebrations and no one died but at least 16 people were injured. and we report from dubai. >> reporter: in the daylight the extent of the damage began to be visible. remnant of an inferno that engulfed the address hotel and residences in downtown dubai. the night before on new year's eve panic set in as the blaze grew worse. on an evening of planned celebrations, this was the last thing anyone expected. >> when we looked out it was fire in the back. we started running out. there are sure the sprinklers did not come out, no sprinklers, no fire alarm. >> reporter: the cause of the fire which started on the 20th floor of the 63-story luxury building is still being investigated. but it took only minutes to spread across the exterior of the skyscraper.

>> translator: it was about 9:00 or 10:00 when it started increasing then i heard a popping noise, my dad at first thought it was fireworks and told him it was a fire and saw black smoke appearing and got bigger. >> started a fire here in the hotel and also two explosions and it was scary. >> reporter: the dubai media office said four fire fighting teams were deployed to control the blaze and 16 people were injured in the fire. the address neighbors the world's tallest building and the focal point of an annual fire work show that rings in the new year in dubai. an estimated one million people converged on the area to witness the pyrotechnics, seven minute fire work extravaganza which went off even as the hotel still smoldered. investigators are still trying to figure out exactly what went wrong and there are still far more questions than answers.

mohamed with al jazeera, dubai. kim jung-un is ready forward if provoked but stayed away from past threat and any mention of nuclear weapons and called for better ties for the south and blamed it for increased miss trust. the suburb in cape town has been placed on the world monuments fund watch list, the organization says the site is a major cultural importance and also at risk of being lost to document. and rita miller went to take a look. >> reporter: this is the suburb that became known as the quarter in the 18 cities when freed slaved from indonesia and madagascar moved in and known for the cobble streets and she lived in one of the houses all her life and shows us family photos taken as far back as the early 1900s explaining it's up to her generation to keep the

area's history intact and says the area's character is linked to islamic heritage. >> for some people it's a place that is so close to their hearts it's part of their soul. it has been in many ways sometimes it has been exploited for commercial reasons and in many ways it has been protected in other ways. >> reporter: the suburb is home to the oldest moss income the cithe -- the oldest mosque in the city and no longer preserving the area for residents, the picture houses began attracting visitors. she works in this house built in 1763, it's now a museum. >> this is what the work-up is. share the life and share the houses and they are to share the culture and the other things.

people come and you can take photographs and don't have the privacy. >> reporter: she says this has contributed to the younger generation selling their homes and moving out, homes here are now fetching higher prices with rates rising 400% in the past decade. >> anyone with a house will be frustrated to bear the cost of maintaining the heritage house and no authorities have funding which is valuable for the upkeep and restoration of heritage houses. >> reporter: this a heritage overlay zone to protect houses from being altered from architectural guidelines and the nonprofit organization the world monument fund declared this one of the world's most significant cultural heritage site at risk of being lost and despite the profile and the protection it is offered many worry they won't be able to fight increasing

gentrification. cape town. new year's day brings in a new set of u.n. global goals and one of them aims to ensure sauce taintable consumer habits to reduce the amount of waste and in the u.s. state of texas one city is tackling that problem head on and report from austin. waste not, want not and not many americans follow that closely any more but at this ingredients store in austin, texas it's the guiding principle and almost no packaging here. customers bring their own bags, jars or buckets from home. assistant manager erica howard showed us around. >> a customer fills up their mason jar and that is a lot less plastic. >> a lot less plastic. >> reporter: comeing from farms to the shelves. >> this is our produce section.

we have, it is small and it's all pretty much going to be seasonal. >> reporter: through hard work and creative thinking the store has reduced waste to almost zero as displayed on this blackboard. for the whole month you only produced about one and a half kilos of trash and what is that compared to the average american family's trash? >> it's less than the average american individual throws away per day. >> one person. >> uh-huh. >> the whole store. >> exactly. >> reporter: store manager josh blaine. >> before the industrial food system took over things were mostly done in a very regional way. things were not being shipped far, far distances and didn't have huge distribution networks and cooperations that were controlling a big part of our food system. >> reporter: the store is part of a larger effort in the city of austin to reduce waste to near zero by 2040. right now americans throw away

lots of stuff says city waste czar. >> in the u.s. 354 tons is from residential settings are tossed in the landfill every year. >> reporter: under austin's strict recycling ordinary nenszs anything recycled is saved and organic waste is composted and the hardest part to zero waste is changing the mindset. >> in the late 50s and and on ward throughout the world we are a convenience and throw away culture, uss it once and throw it away was a symbol of power and wealth. >> reporter: back at ingredients customer sarah says every person can make a difference. >> we need a change on how we handle our waste. i mean, there are few garbage islands out in the pacific. what are we going to do to change it so being sustainable is part of that. >> reporter: changing attitudes in a throw away culture and

getting back to earlier, wiser ways. rob reynolds al jazeera, austin. of course you can keep up to date with the very latest news on our website and also have a chance to look at the programs we are running. there it is on your screen, al jazeera.com. i'm ali velshi "on target" recruited for cash. american hero handing over hard earned money for college degrees that employers don't respect slow track to safety, what is keeping rail roads installing technology that could save lives few industries in america had a worse year than for-profit colleges. you have probably seen the stories, exposing high tuition and low graduation rates, about