Reference :
V-P-NE-E-00164
Date :
25/03/2016
Caption :
Diffa. The ICRC helped Mahamadou, a 14-years-old Nigerian refugee, track down his father and talk to him by phone.
Confidentiality level :
public
Publication restrictions :
reserved users only
Description :
Mahamadou comes from Dawashi in Borno state, Nigeria. Everyone was forced to flee when his village attacked. His father’s best friend, Adama, was from Niger. Adama was given Mahamadou and his older brother, Ibrahim, to take care of, while Mahamadou’s father took the rest of the family to Kros Kawa in Nigeria. “I’m a fisherman and his father a shopkeeper. He thought that I would have more chance of finding work than he did if I went back to my family in Diffa in Niger,” said Adama. Mahamadou’s father had to flee a second time when Kros Kawa was attacked. Meanwhile, Ibrahim decided to become a fisherman on Lake Chad, but the Nigerien authorities ordered people to evacuate the islands for security reasons. So Ibrahim set off to find his father again in Nigeria. After some searching, he found him in Maiduguri, thanks to the ICRC. His dad wanted him to join him in Maiduguri, but Mahamadou doesn’t want to leave and is afraid of going to a town he doesn’t know. He’s happy in Diffa: Adama’s family treat him well; he goes to school; he feels safe. The family receives help from several organizations, including the ICRC. Adama now sells drinking water and does manual work because the lack of security means he can’t go back to fishing. Mahamadou, meanwhile, is happy at school: “When I’m older, I’d like to be a teacher,” he says.
Original material :
digital
Resolution :
5877x3926
Orientation :
landscape
Colour/B&W :
colour
