Once a month
get new photos
and expert tips.

Photography
Main Photo Galleries Wallpapers Photo of the Day Photographers Photo Tips Buy Prints

Photo Gallery: Windows of the Soul

PREVIOUS11 of 15NEXT


Mogadishu, Somalia, February 1993: Nigerian UN troops from Operation Restore Hope arrested these Somali snipers allied with warlord Muhammad Farah Aidid’s militia. They’d been attacking our hotel for days. The UN troops’ arrival in December 1992 helped end the famine but they withdrew in 1995 after being drawn into fighting, especially with Aidid’s militia. Since then, Somalia has suffered from floods, come under occupation by Ethiopian troops, withstood civil war between Islamist forces and a shaky pro-Western government, and been at the brink of famine. Photograph and text by Alexandra Avakian