TITLE: Home and Away

The project aims to present the life and Challenges of the South Sudanese people living in displacement all over South Sudan.

South Sudan is the newest country in world. After two civils wars (since the Sudanese Independence), South Sudan held a referendum, asking to separate from the Sudan. Eventually, in July 2011, South Sudan became independent and the 54th country to join African Union. This was a short-lived joy. In 2013 a political power struggle broke out between President Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar, as the president accused Machar and ten others of attempting a coup d'état. Fighting broke out, igniting the South Sudanese Civil War.
Up to 300,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the war, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, 2.18 million People internally displaced and non- South Sudanese refugees in South Sudan, and 2.4 million South Sudanese refugees hosted in neighboring countries. This, without question, constitutes a serious humanitarian crisis. And this crisis has given “birth” to a new type of displacement settlement. They are called Protection of Civilian sites, commonly known as PoC sites.
Today the United Nations shelters 200,000 people inside its bases across South Sudan. Never before in history have tens of thousands of people sought refuge for such a long period in UN compounds. Never before have aid workers been forced to work in close proximity with armed peacekeepers under such conditions. South Sudan has reset the rules of aid operations forever.
It is not uncommon that people living in the PoCs, have a sort of regular day job, and they return in the afternoon to the PoC. They live in the PoC, because when the night falls, the danger of being attacked, allegedly by Government forces, is higher.

AUTHOR: Nektarios Markogiannis (Greece)

Born in Greece in 1972, Nektarios (Nerris) Markogiannis studied Economics, Photojournalism and Documentary Photography and History of Photography in the UK. After a successful career in investment banking in the UK, his passion for photography prevailed and he left the financial services to take up photography. He has worked for the United Nations PeaceKeeping Operations, collaborated with the FOTOGRAFEVI gallery in Istanbul and his worked has been shown in Los Angeles (Venice Arts, MOPLA 2019), London (Hotshoe Gallery), the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, as well as in various publication (Reuters, Iz, Fortune, Brookings Institute and the Sudan Tribune). He was the winner in the Documentary category (singles) and a finalist (stories) at the 13th Pollux Awards, in Barcelona. Dewi Lewis Publishing, published Nektarios' work from Darfur in 2012, and his work on Breast Cancer in Haiti, was published in partnership with IHI. He currently woks in the Republic of South Sudan.