30 Years after the genocide, mass graves are still discovered

Exactly 30 years ago, a genocide commenced in the Central African country Rwanda. In just a hundred days, over 800 thousand Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered. For de Volkskrant newspaper, photographer Sven Torfinn and I made a tour through the country to find out: is there reconciliation? What does the discovery of a mass grave do to a community? And why is the government so strict when it comes to who can and cannot be remembered during the annual Kwibuka commemoration? The answers to these questions can be found by tapping on this link. Or listen to the Elke Dag podcast.

Being a kid in a refugee camp in Chad

How is it for kids to flee their country from war and ethnic violence? What do you play with when there are no toys around? And how can you learn when there is no school in the refugee camp? For Samsam Magazine, I interviewed Aliyah (blue headscarf, 3rd photo) who fled from El Geneina, Darfur (in West Sudan).

Senegal votes for change

A few iPhone captures of election day at Stade Iba Mar Diop, Dakar, Senegal. More tonight in the NOS Journaal bulletin, with Saskia Houttuin. 🎥 🗳️ 🇸🇳

More here (radio) or on the website of de Volkskrant: https://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/van-belastinginspecteur-en-gevangene-naar-president-van-senegal-faye-kwam-uit-het-niets~bc4df084/

South Africans side with Palestine. "This is just like Apartheid!"

“Your parents fought against apartheid,” a young woman wearing a Palestinian flag for a headscarf shouted at a long wall of police officers, “and now you are doing the opposite! This is exactly how it was like during apartheid!” On a field alongside Cape Town’s Seepunt promenade, thousands of demonstrators wearing Arafat scarves and Palestinian flags faced hundreds of police officers equipped with large plexiglass shields and bulletproof vests.

That same morning, an ‘interreligious prayer session’ had been scheduled to be held right here, in front of the stately apartment complexes of the predominantly Jewish seaside district. The Jewish organizer of the event wanted to show that Israel can also count on the support of South Africa. “For Zion’s sake we will not be silent,” could be read on their flyers, which were distributed via WhatsApp in recent days.

But as soon as those messages reached Cape Town’s large pro-Palestinian movement, thousands of demonstrators carrying Palestinian flags marched to Seepunt. Even before the prayer session could start, the handful of pro-Israel demonstrators were escorted from the field by the present police officers, who were fearing a violent confrontation. And so, buses full of pro-Israel demonstrators were forced to turn around.

Since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas, demonstrations have been taking place almost daily in several parts of South Africa, while the government has also remained anything but aloof. “As a people and as an organization who have fought against an oppressive apartheid regime, we pledge solidarity with the Palestinian people,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech on October 15. Later, they filed an official charge against Israel for genocide at the ICJ in The Hague.

Through their own past of oppression, many people here stand firmly with the Palestinians. But there is also a large Jewish community in the country, and its members are increasingly fearing escalation.

Read the whole piece, written for De Volkskrant, here.

Interview with Koyo Kouoh of Zeitz MOCAA

Three iPhone portraits of Koyo Kouoh, director of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art in Cape Town, “Africa’s answer to the Tate Modern”.

“In the 1990s, I belonged to a generation of curators who wanted to tell stories through group exhibitions. But in these exhibitions, transgenerational connections between artists and movements were often not emphasized.

While it is so necessary to show that we have had so many important African artists for such a long time. They also influence and inspire new generations. As a Pan-African museum it is important to keep this in mind.”

Read the whole interview here.

Nelson Mandela's dream is crumbling in Johannesburg

With every gust of wind that rushes through Nugget Street, 53-year-old Nonzuzo Mthembu falls silent for a moment. It’s pointless to continue talking, the loudly flapping pieces of brown plastic that hang in front of the gaping hole in her room make so much noise. One day, a few years ago, all the windows suddenly broke. “Nobody knows why,” says Mthembu. “The building is probably slowly collapsing.” She sighs. “Everything here is breaking down.”

Together with her three children and six grandchildren, Mthembu has been living without electricity, gas and water for more than a decade. Cooking here is done on an open fire, the walls and ceilings are blackened. Toilets haven’t worked for years. The elevator shafts function as a dumping ground and are filled up to the third floor with a mountain of rotting waste. The steel fire escapes have been sawn away and sold for scrap, long streams of urine flow from the stairwell into the dark corridors.

Remington House, as the building is called, is one of Johannesburg’s most notorious buildings - it has been ‘hijacked’ by criminals. Passers-by are regularly dragged into the building with a knife to their throat and robbed. Several women were raped in the structure. And when criminals disappear into the building with the police on their heels, the officers abandon their pursuit, fearing a possible ambush. Only during large-scale police operations do officers dare to enter the premises.

The heart of wealthy Johannesburg, once the cradle of Nelson Mandela’s struggle for a new South Africa, is in decline. With the elections around the corner, the rest of the country is wondering: is this our future? Read the whole story here.

In The Gambia, memories of dictator Yammeh's rule are still fresh

When he’s talking about his father, 17-year-old Ousainou Sandeng stares at his feet. His younger brothers, who were just frolicking around him under the termite-eaten mango tree, quickly went inside when the topic of conversation came.

“He was slaughtered,” says the quiet boy after a deep sigh. His father left on April 14, 2016 to demonstrate. “He demanded electoral reforms,” says Sandeng, “and took to the streets. He was arrested and taken to the headquarters of President Jammeh’s secret service, where he was tortured until he died.”

The Gambia was at the mercy of dictator Jammeh for more than twenty years. Only now, years after his flight, are the painful stories given a place in memorial centers and schools. But it remains difficult to talk about him, and few have hope of his prosecution.

Read the full story here in Dutch or here in Spanish.

The Gambia is looking for 'quality tourists'

About three hundred kilometers upstream on the Gambia River, near the river island Janjanbureh, Jalamang Danso guides tourists by boat and car past villages, islands and extensive baobab forests. “Most tourists come to Gambia for the three S’s,” he says as a motorboat slowly chugs along the river, “sun, sea and sex.” He scans the coastline for any activity. “While Gambia has so much more to offer.”

The tourism season in Gambia is in full swing; many Dutch people like to flee the cold, Dutch winter for some time in the sun. But they come not only for sun and sea, but also for paid sex. A growing number of Gambians say that this type of ‘sex tourism’ is exploitative and needs to stop. To attract ‘quality tourists’, tourism alternatives aiming for young travelers are slowly coming of the ground.

Read the whole story here.

Also Chad, the last partner of the Sahel, is turning away from France

The French army is reluctantly withdrawing further and further from the Sahel. Anti-French sentiment is also on the rise in Chad, the last partner of France in the region. “They support a dictatorial regime that kills its own people.”

Read my reportage from N’Djamena in De Volkskrant.

New work for The Guardian: Darfur’s victims struggle on in a Chad refugee camp

More than 420,000 people have fled across the border as attacks by militias in West Darfur continue. Another 200,000 people are expected to follow. Yet, says one refugee, ‘the international community does nothing’.

To see the 20 pictures and read the stories of Darfuri refugees, click here.

New work for The Economist: a photo from Eastern Chad

One of the photos I recently took in eastern Chad is in this week's edition of The Economist.

Their correspondent, Kinley Salmon, also traveled to the camps on the border with Darfur, where Sudanese refugees tell horrific stories of rape and murder.

His report can also be read online, by clicking on this link.

Ethnic violence has returned to Darfur

Executions of tied up young men, children murdered with axes and mass attacks on groups of fleeing civilians - these are just some of the terrible stories that Darfuris refugees told us in eastern Chad.

Hundreds of thousands have crossed the border in recent months. The vast majority of people moved to the camp that emerged next to Adré, a sleepy border village that has since been transformed into a gigantic humanitarian hub.

But the humanitarian support in the camp is still inadequate: the rest of the world is busy with other crises, the situation in Adré is dire. Although malnourished children are helped to regain their strength, they run the risk of becoming malnourished again when they are discharged from the clinic. There is simply not enough of everything in the camp.

Our report on the violence in Darfur, which is strongly reminiscent of the ethnic cleansing of 20 years ago, is on the front page of the Volkskrant today, with beautiful images by photographer Sven Torfinn.

Tap or click here to read the story.

The memory of the brutal dictatorship in Gambia is slowly coming to the surface

The Gambia was at the mercy of dictator Jammeh for more than twenty years. Only now, years after his flight, the painful stories arevgiven a place in memorial centers and schools. But it remains difficult to talk about him. And few have hope of his prosecution.

Read the reportage from The Gambia here.