4. Images of Africa in World Press Photo

The date on the photo board refers to the year it was taken; the prize was awarded the following year. All photos in the paper were taken by the author in April 2016 during the World Press Photo 16 exhibition and awards days in Amsterdam. Karamoja District, Uganda, date: 00-04-1980. The hand of a severely malnourished boy rests in a Catholic monk’s hand in the Karamoja region of northeastern Uganda. Hunger has been a recurrent problem in the drought-prone region of Karamoja. Due to natural, social, and political causes, periods of famine intensified in the 1970s. The famine of 1980 was the worst in the region’s history at the time. In less than a year, it killed around 20% of the population, including approximately half of all infants. While the famine also reached other districts, Karamoja was by far the worst affected. Credit: © Mike Wells.

Nzara, South Sudan, 17 November 2014: Michael Oryem, 29, is a former Lord’s Resistance Army fighter who was involved in the poaching of ivory in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a former base of operations for the LRA and a major source of financing for the notorious group. Oryem was abducted by the group when he was nine and lived with them for over 17 years in the wild. He was made a commander in the group at the age of 12. The LRA is infamous for the killing and abduction of thousands of civilians across multiple countries. He defected and is now a member of the Ugandan army, UPDF, African Union force hunting the LRA. He is seen with two of six pieces of ivory which he hid and then led the Ugandan forces to inside the border region of the Central African Republic. He claims that the LRA killed many elephants in Garamba and he was ordered by Joseph Kony, the group’s notorious leader, to bring the ivory to him in Darfur, South Sudan. Ivory is now a real means of financing for the LRA; it is used for both food and weapon supplies and is traded to the Sudanese army who transports it north to Khartoum.

Date: 1/8/2005, Tahoua, Niger. The fingers of malnourished one-year-old Alassa Galisou press against the lips of his mother, Fatou Ousseini, at an emergency feeding center. Drought and a particularly heavy plague of locusts destroyed the previous year’s harvest. This left an estimated 3.6 million people severely short of food, including tens of thousands of starving children. Heavy rains promised well for the 2005 crops, but hindered aid workers bringing supplies. Relief had been slow to come.