Discovering the true story
As told by Phil Cox:
During my visits to cover the conflict in Darfur, I have spent time in the refugee camps in Chad where over 200,000 people are surviving day by day, unable to go home. The Zaghawa Tribe is an indigenous African tribe that spreads through Darfur and Chad, which is why Chad supports the refugee camps. I became close to a number of refugees whose villages I had visited after they had fled them, and with the photos I had taken previously I was able to seek them out in the camps to obtain their testimony and stories. It was during these trips to the camps and living with the refugees that I came to hear about the remarkable stories of many of the children who had escaped Darfur.
It was the incredible story of the children from Gegira village – Ibrahim aged 14, Najua aged 12, Samia aged 10 and Mohammed aged 9, that stood out beyond others. After smuggling myself across the Darfur border in 2004, Gegira village was the first place I had entered – finding smoking huts and bodies strewn everywhere. Little did I know that a year later I would meet, know and film the stories of the people from this destroyed village.
A few days before my arrival in Gegira, on the Morning of 15th February 2004, four children – Ibrahim, Najua, Samia and Mohammed left their village of Gegira in North Darfur to find firewood. Led by Ibrahim, they walked for about an hour across the desert. They walked barefoot with only a plastic jerry can of water to sustain them as they headed towards thickets of dried wood. They chatted and talked. They decided to spend the night in the desert - a decision that saved their lives.
The next morning – returning to their village, they heard shots and saw smoke. The dreaded Janjaweed were attacking, burning and looting Gegira. The village was being destroyed and bodies were everywhere. Ibrahim ran into the village – young Samia followed him. Najua and Mohammed hid behind the rocks. The children became separated and thus began their individual journeys across war torn Darfur in their fight to be reunited.
