Reference :
V-P-PG-E-00203
Date :
25/10/2016
Caption :
Southern Highlands province. Riarepa community member, Eggie John, with her youngest child. She adopted a toddler whose mother was killed in a grenade attack in Ragu during a tribal conflict.
Confidentiality level :
public
Publication restrictions :
publication without restrictions
Description :
ICRC website, photo gallery "Lives lost, futures destroyed: Stories from Papua New Guinea’s tribal wars", 29 May 2017
"Riarepa community member, Eggie John, with her youngest child, in Southern Highlands Province. Since 2013, her tribe has sheltered hundreds of displaced people from the neighbouring Wambia clan. During a conflict, a house sheltering hundreds of community members was reportedly hit by a grenade, killing dozens. "My husband’s family is from Ragu, where the bomb went off. So we went to see what happened. Our community told us not to go, but we insisted. People were shouting and crying. There were bullets flying everywhere. A toddler from the Wambia tribe was crawling in the grass. We carried her to safety. We later found out that her mother had died in the grenade attack, so we adopted her and are now raising her. She has three siblings who also escaped. They now live with their father in Mt Hagen. When they visit me, they call me mother. As long as they call me mother, I will be a mother to them. I don’t want them to have to think about what happened to their tribe.”
Home to some of the remotest communities in the world, the Papua New Guinea Highlands is a region of breathtaking, untouched beauty. However, these spectacular hills and valleys also harbor a disturbing reality: across the Highlands, tribal communities are at war. Vicious conflicts – over land, resources and other grievances – lead to thousands of displacements each year and rob families of their lives and livelihoods.
In Papua New Guinea's modern-day conflicts, no-one is spared from the fight – anyone or anything is a target – and tragically this includes women and children. Here, people caught up in these tribal disputes, share their stories, illustrating the serious, ongoing humanitarian impact of Papua New Guinea's chronic tribal wars."
Original material :
digital
Resolution :
3744x5616
Orientation :
portrait
Colour/B&W :
colour
