Photographed by Shehzad Noorani
This image of children peeking into my camera lens was shot in a village-like setting in Karrare Camp for Internally Displaced People (IDP) on the outskirts of El Nyala, a small town in southern Darfur.
It was my third trip to Sudan, in November 2004. On a completely different assignment there little more than two years previously, it had looked totally different. At that time Darfur was not on the world’s emergency list, so few people had heard of it. I was taken to a village near El Nyala and left on my own with a Sudanese family to document a day in the life of Mahasin, a nomadic girl. There was no army, no government officers checking credentials, not even any NGO workers. By the time I came back at the end of 2004, everything felt different and charged up, with dozens of flights landing daily, some with emergency food supplies, some with NGO workers and some with government officials, VIPs and international celebrities. Markets were bustling and prices for goods had shot up. Several new restaurants had opened up, some just to entertain NGO workers. In short, it felt as though the IDP crisis had brought booming business to this little town and pumped new life into it.
The games Sudanese politicians play are complex and extremely hard to understand, but as long as they continue to benefit everyone involved – Sudanese and other governments; armies, militias and thugs – the situation of internally displaced people in Darfur will continue to worsen.
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Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
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