A MoJo of video, audio and written reportages
[Malual Kon, Bahr el-Ghazal, Southern Sudan 42°C] This morning, like every morning, I wake up with the sounds of roosters clucking, children playing, and neighbours beyond the compound fence discussing the beginning of their day. I make my way from inside my canvas tent on the Save the Children (UK) compound, and walk the narrow [...]
[Nairobi, Kenya 27°C] Below is a selection of photos taken at Sud Academy, a primary/secondary school for Sudanese refugees in a poor neighbourhood of Nairobi, Kenya. The school has a student population of more than 200 students, some of whom were abducted during the civil war by northern militia and enslaved by them to tend the cattle stolen in the raid. Lino Madut Angok is ne of the abductees who was freed, as indicated in his letter (below) by an organization called Redemption(?). Although I recognize the benefit Lino has received by being freed from bondage, there is much debate (here, here and here) about the practice of redemption (buying the slave’s freedom) and its ability to end slavery in Sudan.
[Nairobi, Kenya 28°C] The Nairobi heat rarely gathers on the brow long enough to bead. It evaporates long before it has a chance to trickle then drip. Kenya will prepare you for the heat of Sudan, everyone tells me as I reach for my water bottle, still thursty. It’s not just the heat of Southern Sudan I’m preparing for, it’s the place itself. It’s hold on a tenuous peace, as mandated by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed on Januray 9, 2005 between the Khartoum-based Government of Sudan and the, then-rebel group, Sudan People’s Liberation Army.
January 1, 2006 was the day Abdelkader Belaouni entered into a self-imposed sancutary at St-Gabriel’s Church in the Pointe Saint-Charles neighbourhood of Montréal. On January 6, I visited Kader on the second floor of the rectory where he has spent much of the last 1100 days to avoid deportation back to Algeria.
[MONTRÉAL] A little-known detail about Gaza that is rarely mentioned in the media is that within its borders exist 8 United Nations refugee camps: Palestinian refugees within occupied Palestinian territories. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), the 365-square-kilometre Gaza Strip has a total population of approximately 1.4 million [...]
Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Condition Critical 10,000 Words