A civil war was taking place in Sudan during the time the picture on the top was taken. Most of the war was happening in the southern part of Sudan. The war began in 1983. This picture was taken in 1995; these boys were probably born shortly after the war began and have never known anything besides war life. Sometimes young boys were taken by rebels under the idea they were being protected from the government draft; really they were being trained to fight on the rebel side. To avoid this families would send their children off to refugee camps located in Kenya. Travelling was done by foot and only at night.
The civil war did not end until just recently, in 2005. According to the United Nations, however, "more people have been killed in southern Sudan in 2009 than in Darfur, where a separate conflict drew international attention, prompted charges of genocide and led the International Criminal Court to indict the Sudanese president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, for war crimes." On paper, the war is over, but fighting still continues.
To watch a short clip on further information of the current situation of Sudan covered by CNN click here.
Salgado, Sebastiao. Photograph. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture. New York, 2000. 163.
--Pamphlet. "Southern Sudan: A Population in Distress" Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture. New York, 2000. 11.
that map i drew on our wall of africa is better than that one.
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