Photojournalism: Honorable Mention 2019 (amateur)
ENTRY DESCRIPTION
Decades of long violent conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea culminated into the 1998 war that costed the lives of tens of thousands of people and displaced half a million. The conflict came to an end in 2000 when the UN facilitated a peace agreement between both countries and ended one of Africa’s longest running conflicts. Nevertheless, the exact location of the international border could not be agreed and over the past eighteen years, both sides acted out numerous armed aggressions, the most recent being the killing of five tourists in 2012 and a one-day battle between their armies in June 2016.
On a recent trip to the Ethiopian/Eritrean border I needed to hire security to visit the Danakil depression. Any foreign entering this area is required to be accompanied by local armed Afar escorts and be under surveillance of military forces in order to be protected from terrorist attacks due to ongoing tension between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
This young armed escort- 16 years old- explained me that the government provides them with a limited monthly supply of bullets that they must shoot to keep their good aim.
AUTHOR
Amateur photographer since 2005. Started taking pictures just because my parents bought me a small camera for my birthday, I liked it and decided to learn the basic principles of photography.
I'm a Spanish born scientist/engineer and I work in the UK University since 2006. I do travel frequently to Africa as I do collaborate with a charity, this gives me the opportunity to merge with the locals and get to know their traditions and ways of living. It also makes me appreciate certain social injustice situations that I try to reflect in my photos and share with whoever wants to hear about them.
Big fan of water sports, I also document surf and Kitesurf championships.
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