In 1991 a second Sudanese civil war broke out. This war proved to be one of the most deadliest (and longest) of the latter end of the 20th century. Ending in January of 2005 with a peace treaty, there was an estimated 1.9 million civilian casualties in this war. The situation didn't help with the continuation of new rebel groups forming during the war. Also Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda organization moved to Sudan during this time and Osama bin Laden supposedly organized some of his first terrorist attacks from Sudan.

The picture above is taken in the country of Kenya. The youth in this picture are Sudanese and they have been sent away by their own families. Why? Their families sent them away so that they would not be enlisted to fight in the civil war. The war got so ugly and long that they started recruiting teenagers to continue the fighting. These boys in the picture were living in these refugee camps, provided by the United Nations, to be able to ensure a longer life.

Although better than war, refugee camps are hardly comfortable. They are always over packed and a lot of the time are ridden with disease and pests. This also reminds me of something that we can do to remember and help the refugees from Haiti. We should always try and see what we can do to help them. A lot of the time, things that we do to help actually go to improve the conditions of the temporary living quarters that these people have to live in.


Salgado, Sebastião. Photograph. 1996 Migrations: Humanity in Transition. 11 Feb. 2010