TITLE: WITHOUT A HOMELAND The contended Land

Africa is a land of Euclidean geometries, whose borders have been designed by non African people for [nomadic] people who did not have or know any borders.
There is a slim triangle of land along the perfectly horizontal line that separates Egypt from Sudan, which has always been claimed by both countries. It is the Halayeb-Shalateen triangle”.
Starting from Sudan's independence in 1956, border relations with Egypt have always been characterized more by reciprocal suspicion than by peaceful exchanges.
The situation became even worse in the following decades due to a never ending sequence of obstacles and conflicts, particularly on that strip of land, which is currently under Egyptian rule.
The soil which is rich in minerals is another reason for the fight that does not appear to be subsiding any time soon, as both countries want to exploit it.
Shalateen is the main outpost of the territory and it is also the most important camel market of Egypt, managed by nomadic tribes both of Arabic and Nubian origins who have always inhabited those lands.
They are the ones who are paying the highest price for the conflict. For many years now and after many promises, “waiting for the end of the crisis”, those people still do not have a citizenship, they are stateless, paperless and worried that if they move they might be arrested.
Egyptian authorities refuse to give them an official paper demonstrating their right to Egyptian citizenship.
Based on UNHCR data about 10 million people in the world today are stateless.
In Egypt no official statistics are available either at the local authorities or at the UNHCR on the number of stateless people in the country and there are no laws regulating the issue.

AUTHOR: andrea bettancini (Italy)

All my education was developed in the area of ​​creativity, first the art school
and then the IED of Milan in the fashion department.
I worked as a designer in Milan for various clothing brands and collaborated with an architecture magazine of the Mondadori group.
Photography has always been a passion of mine, since the days of analog.
I prefer reportage, street photography and photographic storytelling in general, also through the fusion and contamination of images that develop a non-analytical sign language.

I was finalist at the Sony Awards 2022 professional documentary section, winner of the ND Awards 2022 long exposures, finalist at the Urban Photo Awards 2022 (portfolio), finalist Siena Awards 2022, finalist World Water Day 2022, winner as best author at the main Italian FIAF competitions (Follonica , Golden chip, Cameri, Murlo, Brugine)