Somalia is facing its worst drought in 40 years

Millions of people are facing severe hunger as a result of the worst drought in 40 years in the Horn of Africa. For 8 days, I traveled through the country for Dutch and international media and what we witnessed was heartbreaking and harrowing. People have lost everything because of the drought, children die because of malnutrition.

As the situation deteriorates, aid agencies fear that a focus on the Ukraine crisis is likely to overwhelm the agenda and donors at a critical time for the East African country of Somalia in particular. According to a statement by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, only 3.2 percent ($47.1m) of the required funding ($1.5bn) for its humanitarian response plan has been received so far.

To read some of the stories I worked on, click on the links below:

• The Guardian: ‘There is not enough food. The situation is dire’: Somalia’s drought crisis

• Trouw (longread in Dutch): In Somalië voltrekt zich stilletjes een hongersnood, maar ‘Oekraïne domineert de agenda’

• Der Spiegel: With the World's Attention on Ukraine, Suffering Is Rising Elsewhere

• Der Spiegel (pictures): Dürre und Hungersnot in Somalia: Nie wieder – hieß es vor zehn Jahren

• NPO Radio 1 (Met Het Oog Op Morgen): Hongersnood dreigt voor miljoenen mensen in Hoorn van Afrika

• VICE World News: Russia's Invasion of Ukraine Is Putting Millions of Lives at Risk in Somalia

• El País: Somalia se quiebra por la sequía histórica y la invasión rusa de Ucrania

• NPO Radio 1 (Humberto): Droogte in Hoorn van Afrika, 500.000 Somaliërs ontheemd

• Al Jazeera English: Drought in Somalia worsened by funding gap, Ukraine war

• De Morgen: De vergeten hongersnood in Somalië. ‘Door de droogte zijn we alles kwijtgeraakt’

• The New York Times: how the ongoing drought is affecting kids in Somalia

• Op1 interview: drought in East Africa

• Libération: Famine en Somalie : «Les gens ont tout perdu»

• El País: Tres adolescentes alertan al mundo desde el campo de refugiados climáticos más grande de Somalia

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Trouw published a four page story I wrote about the drought in Somalia.

Dutch comedian Dolf Jansen showed some of my pictures in Dutch talkshow Khalid & Sophie.

Controlling the locust invasion in Northern Kenya: new work for El País

A bit more than a year after billions of locusts invaded East Africa, locust hunters have now built a system to beat the ferocious insects that are threatening livelihoods across the region. According to the FAO, the operation can almost be declared as a success.

In Northern Kenya, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN has teamed up with the private sector, community elders and the Kenyan government to fight desert locusts that came flying from the Arabic peninsula. 

In densely populated areas, the locust control operation should be done from the ground, where scouts are spraying pesticides from special backpacks, or from spraying installations built on the back of pickups. But in the vast plains and forests of Northern Kenya, this is not possible. And so surveillance helicopters are deployed from several smaller airfields. The data is then gathered in one large system in the so-called joint operation control center, where experts can decide where the specially equipped spray planes should fly to. 

“Last year, we did not have any data,” says Casper Sitemba, FAO representative. “When we started, individuals were making phone calls reporting sightings of locusts. But in this campaign, we have used a lot of technology to address the data gaps that existed before. We have built several applications and through them, we have been able to collect massive amounts of data. Right now, our control effort success rate is almost 86%. We are now able to measure that success — last year, we didn’t even know how many swarms there were and where they were when the invasion stated.”

According to the FAO, the operation in Northern Kenya has been “very successful”. Sitemba: “As of now, we are down to the last few swarms in Kenya. And these are not even really swarms, they are what we call ‘swarmlets’, groups of locusts that have broken away from the larger swarms. They can be 20 to 30 hectares big, where last year we had swarms as big as 3,000 hectares. We are downscaling the operation, as the situation improved manifold, but we remain vigilant as we are approaching the rainy season.”

Read the full piece and check out all photos on the El País website (also in Spanish)!

Eating bushmeat in Ivory Coast: three new publications for El País

Spanish international newspaper El País published an English and Spanish version of the story Saskia Houttuin and I made for Dutch newspaper Trouw! The 1300 words piece has appeared on their website, accompanied by a slideshow with 13 of the pictures I took in and around Agou, Côte d’Ivoire.

To read the story, click on one of the two pictures below:

A new publication in Trouw: aid workers on the situation in Tigray

“I flew directly to Tigray. At Mekele airport, there were soldiers everywhere, even on the runway. They don't do anything, but they are there. On the way to the city, you will pass multiple checkpoints. As a Westerner, you are immediately singled out and questioned about what you’re doing here. They want to make sure that you’re not a journalist, because they do not tolerate prying eyes,” says ZOA’s emergency coordinator Hielke Zantema.

Dutch newspaper Trouw interviewed two Dutch aid workers who recently worked in Tigray, where the fight continues unabated. But no one knows exactly what is happening in the Ethiopian region. Click here to read the story.

Bushmeat in Ivory Coast: a story for Dutch newspaper Trouw

New work for Dutch newspaper Trouw:

It has been forbidden to hunt for Ivory Coast's pangolins since 1974, but the law has never been maintained. Now it is known that the coronavirus may have been transmitted from animals onto humans through a pangolin, Ivorians are fighting for a ban. But it's not easy.

Now that Ahmed Fofana, 21, is out of work because of the coronavirus pandemic, his grandfather's old shotgun comes in handy. For years it lay in pieces in the shed. "It was no longer used," said Fofana, who took the time to give the weapon a second life. Black, wrapped tape and some simple welding now hold the long barrel and wooden butt together.

Almost every day at dusk, he walks out of his village, the rifle in his hand. Agou, a small town in the southeastern department of Adzopé (Ivory Coast), is surrounded by forests and fields. It's an ideal hunting ground. In the 'brousse', as Ivorians describe wild natural areas, Fofana hunts for his next meal. He sums up the animals he encounters: "Gazelles, deer, hedgehogs, rats, pangolins, snakes". If it's edible, he shoots it.

He prefers to do something else for a living. "But I have no choice," he explains. Due to the corona virus, he lost his job as a moped taxi driver last year. "As the man of the house, it is my job to find food for my family." Read the whole story, by Saskia Houttuin, by following this link.

New work for Trouw: a story about public toilets in Mathare

Where do you go to the toilet if you live in an informal settlement (aka a slum)? Lidia, who lives in Nairobi, showed me around her Nairobi neighborhood Mathare and the sanitation situation there. “A house with its own bathroom is my big wish. But I fear this will remain a dream. ”

Mathare consists of small houses made of stone or clay and wood, covered with corrugated iron. There are some beds in Lidia’s room, one corner is meant for cooking, and her belongings are stacked from the ground or are hanging from hooks from the ceiling. Next to the door stands a blue bucket with a lid, her toilet for the night.

“During the day we go to the public toilet,” Lidia says, “about a five minute walk from here, but at night we use this bucket. Despite the lid, the house smells unbearable, especially when one of us has diarrhea again. And so I get up early in the morning, and take the bucket to the river to empty it.”

“As you can see and smell, the public toilets are not cleaned daily. But it's better than nothing. The worst thing about communal toilets is that moment when I have to urgently and there is a line at the entrance.”

"I was born and raised here, my parents live here, it is my home. We could move to the countryside, but what do you do there if you don't own any land? Moreover, education is worse there than here in Mathare. I want to offer my children the chance for a better life, hopefully in a house with a toilet. ”

Words by Ilona Eveleens, pictures taken by me on assignment for newspaper Trouw in Mathare. Click here to read the whole story, on the Trouw website.

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New work: reporting on the Tigray conflict for The Telegraph

Fleeing the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, tens of thousands of people walked days to get to neighboring Sudan, where they are staying in crowded refugee settlements. On assignment for British newspaper The Telegraph, I traveled with Africa correspondents Saskia Houttuin and Will Brown to eastern Sudan, where we were some of the first journalists to talk to refugees.

The Tigrayans told us horrifying stories, about indiscriminate bombings, machete attacks, decapitations and executions. But it’s hard to check if their stories are true, as in Tigray, the electricity and communication services have been cut off for weeks. On top of that, journalists are not allowed to enter the region to do their work independently. And so the only way to get an idea of what might have happened in Northern Ethiopia, is to talk to the many refugees that we found in the camps.

To read some of the stories that Will and Saskia wrote for their newspapers, click through the screenshots below. To read the story I wrote for Trouw’s De Verdieping segment, click here. To hear the radio interview I did for ‘Met Het Oog Op Morgen’, in conversation with Wilfried de Jong, click here. To hear the conversation I had in the ‘NOS Radio 1 Journaal’ with Jurgen van den Berg, together with Africa correspondent Bram Vermeulen, click play on the video underneath the newspaper clippings (or click here). To listen to NOS podcast ‘De Dag’ about the situation in the Sudanese camps, click play on the player below.

In addition to the work I did for The Telegraph, NOS and Trouw, I also worked for NGOs, who are working on the ground to help the Ethiopian refugees. To see some of the work I did for World Food Programme (WFP), click here. The photos I took for Save The Children can be seen here. To see the video interviews and pictures I created for Dutch refugee NGO Stichting Vluchteling, click here. And to see the pictures I took for ZOA, click here.

New work for The Guardian: Will Samburu's children go back to school?

I’m very happy to share that The Guardian published twelve pictures I took in Samburu, in the photo essay section of their website. The story that goes with all photographs, about worries over Samburu’s children who might not return to school as they are once again living a traditional way of life, was written by Saskia Houttuin.

See the whole photo essay here, on the website of The Guardian.

Click here to read more about our frontpage coverage about Samburu for NRC Handelsblad.

Elections in Ivory Coast: in photos

For almost a month, I’ve been taking pictures in Ivory Coast as the West-African country organized elections, which were boycotted by the two main opposition parties. In the slideshow below, you can find a selection of photographs.

Interview 'De Buitenlandredactie': life as an Africa Correspondent

For foreign news journalism platform De Buitenlandredactie, Saskia Houttuin and I were interviewed about covering news events (like the elections in Ivory Coast) in Africa.

“During the elections in America you can see that just about any former America correspondent is traveling across the US once more, to make special reports or programmes there. So there are many possibilities to make some good, substantive and in-depth stories there. Why isn't that happening in Africa?

This year there are no fewer than thirteen African countries that hold elections, but in my opinion you read far too little about them in the Dutch media. What is happening in African countries at this moment is incredibly important for the future of a European country like the Netherlands.”

Read the whole interview here.

Pre-election coverage for Trouw, RTL Nieuws: Ivory Coast

“Ivory Coast is divided,” says Judicaël Yao (who wears a black cap), the coordinator for RHDP Yamoussoukro. “But even about Jesus Christ, people were not unanimous.” Judicaël's party leader and current president Alassane Ouattara decided to run for a third term, but opposition leaders say that this decision is unconstitutional. And so the opposition has urged voters to boycot the elections of upcoming Saturday.

In Ivory Coast’s capital Yamoussoukro, followers of Ouattara aren’t bothered by the claims of the opposition, as they put up posters of Ouattara as if the elections are running in a normal fashion. “Today, we believe that for the majority of Ivorians, those who want the happiness of our people, president Ouattara is the man who is needed,” Judicaël says. "In nine years, he has transformed Ivory Coast.” Ouattara has been praised for Ivory Coast’s economic growth: the average gross domestic product has grown around 8% per year since he came to power in 2011.

Still, Ivory Coast is on edge, and tensions are high. Fears of instability in the country rise, as electoral violence has already led to sixteen deaths in Abou, a commercial district 50 kilometers from Abidjan. The memories of post-election violence in 2010 and 2011, that killed some 3,000 people, are still fresh.

To learn about the elections, check out our reportage for RTL Nieuws or read Saskia Houttuin’s article for Dutch daily Trouw. To see some additional photography and reporting for VPRO, click here.

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New work for VPRO, NRC Handelsblad & The Guardian

When Covid-19 cases surged and the Kenyan government put hefty measures in place, hundreds of Samburu people got together for an event that only takes place once every fifteen years. In a lengthy ceremony, they circumcised their boys, turning them into ‘morans’. Now, six months later, these morans (meaning warriors) have been roaming around Samburu freely with their cattle. And many of them are not looking to return to school.

For VPRO’s Bureau Buitenland, NRC Handelsblad and The Guardian, I traveled to Samburu with Koert Lindijer and Saskia Houttuin. Together, we worked on a story about the impact of school closures in this northwestern region of Kenya. Government officials fear that a whole generation is lost.

“Nobody was prepared for what was going to happen,” says Jane Mutua, head of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) in Samburu, which operates under the national government. “Everybody thought we were going to close for maybe a month or two. But now it’s already happening – education got out of their minds.”

Not only has the closure of schools meant that boys will not go back to school, also girls might not return. Nabulu, for instance, got pregnant after she had sex with her boyfriend. When her father learned of his daughter’s pregnancy, he wanted her to undergo FGM (female circumcision). “When I refused, he started beating me and my mum.” She now lives in the town of Wamba with her mother, in hiding from her father. Most pregnant girls will not return to school.

In the small town of Resim, the school expects that out of 110 pupils, 20 will drop out. After consulting elders and teachers, the Teachers Service Commission anticipates even higher rates throughout Samburu county: “If we can salvage three quarters of every class, I think we’ll have gone a long way,” says Jane Mutua, while recognizing that her estimate is optimistic. “I am hoping that I will be right. If we don’t land on the sun, we can land on the moon.”

To read the whole frontpage piece by Koert Lindijer (which was also featured by De Standaard, as well on their frontpage), click here. To watch the video I made for Saskia Houttuin’s radio report for VPRO Bureau Buitenland, click below. An English story by Saskia Houttuin will be published by The Guardian soon.

On assignment for newspaper Trouw: Kenyan teachers become farmers to beat Covid unemployment

On my first assignment for Dutch newspaper Trouw, I traveled to ‘Vicodec’, a school in Kenya’s Ongata Rongai. Here, the teachers have picked up farming as they are out of work - because of Covid, schools are closed for the rest of the year. You can read the piece by Ilona Eveleens in full by following this link to the Trouw website.

In Kenya, schools are closed until January next year. The decision, made by the government as a measure to control the spread of Covid-19, proves to be a large challenge for private schools. Where state-run schools still get funding to pay for rent and salary, private schools rely on fees paid by parents. And so many private schools are in financial trouble, sending their staff members on unpaid leave.

Just south of capital Nairobi, in a town called Ongata Rongai, the Victory Community Development Center used to offer education for around 560 children who mainly live in the informal settlement called Kware. But because of Covid-19, children are forced to stay home, and so the school had to get creative in order to survive. Classrooms were transformed into chicken coops, and the gymnastics field and playground have been plowed so that the teachers can grow crops and keep livestock. 

“We are getting some donations from Kenyans and a family in the US,” Vicodec’s head teacher Rose Charagu says, "but it’s not enough to pay our staff. With farming and keeping animals, we produce food to distribute to the community, as well as to generate at least some income.” And so the school's IT teacher and the hair & body care teacher work side by side on the land, while their colleagues care for chickens inside the school’s classrooms. 

“We try to adapt,” Charagu concludes, "to not just sit still and wait for January. We are in control of the situation now, that feels good.”

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