Guy Peterson

Mauritanias camel brigade - Patrolling hundreds of miles of desert on the border with Mali a specialised 350 strong brigade of the Mauritanian army spends months at a time riding camels into hard to reach areas. Winning hearts and minds of communities that are vulnerable living so far from the nations capital, Nouakchott, over a thousand kilometres away. The brigade, all recruited from the region, gather intelligence from communities listening to their needs setting up clinics and providing security. This is not a fighting brigade although they all carry guns. Their aim is to build resilience to extremist ideas leaking over the border from a turbulent Mali by creating a sense of belonging to Mauritania and a national identity. Keeping an eye on the civilian population reporting back to the capital. @joostbastmeijer and I spent three days trekking on camels through the desert with them. With no maps they navigate through their incredible knowledge of the desert. With thanks to @rowin_stagram and @gabriel_eisenmeier for the trust and fantastic edit online and in print for @de_volkskrant #reportage #sahel #africa #camels #army #photojournalism

In Yuai, South Sudan, Dr Aja, the country’s first female Ophthalmologists does life changing eye surgeries leading a small team in a region with one of the highest rates of trachoma in the world. Set up in falling down buildings and tents using natural light over a two week period the team operated on over 1000 people most walking blind led by their children for days after hearing about the pop up clinic leaving able to see. . . . Shot for @de_volkskrant . #reportage #trachoma #southsudan #africa #reportagespotlight

Niger’s military Junta reversed a law pushed by the EU preventing migrants from moving north of Agadez where a vast portion of the local economy relies on the movement of people as it has done for hundreds of years. Known as the gateway to the Sahara, since the reversal of the law migrants have returned. Taking pickup trucks arranged by agents no longer needing to be secretive about their work they set off for days across the desert to the Libyan border. Many trying to get to Europe and other to Libya and Northern Niger looking for work. . . Shot for @de_volkskrant with the brilliant @saskiasaskia on the words in this weekends paper. . #niger #africa #migration #reportage #photojournalism #viiacademy

The funeral of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil after being killed by a targeted Israeli airstrike in Al Tayri, southern Lebanon. An incredibly sad day for journalism.

An orphanage in the Nuba Mountains cares for children who’ve lost their parents in Sudan’s civil war, while teaching them to be peacemakers. * Large numbers of children began arriving at Our Father’s Cleft after Sudan’s third civil war erupted in April 2023 – a testament to how many families have been torn apart as the fighting has spawned the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. * Tucked between sepia-toned hills, the orphanage is home to 180 young adults and is educating some 300 more. Director Ezekiel Ayub knows firsthand what these children have endured. He spent his boyhood hiding in the caves of the Nuba Mountains during the previous civil war, which lasted from 1983 to 2005. His family rarely had enough food to eat, and Mr. Ayub watched as other children around him grew sick and died. * Sometimes, Mr. Ayub travels to crowded displacement camps in the Nuba Mountains, where he picks up vulnerable children and takes them to Our Father’s Cleft. Other times, relatives bring children to Mr. Ayub, or young people walk there alone from as far as Darfur, some 300 miles away. * He hopes that the children at the orphanage will help all of Sudan someday. “If they can study, they will transform their communities; they will be change-makers,” he says. “They will bring peace. They will end the war.” * Read more in our latest from Sudan for @csmoinitor , with thanks @liftupthevulnerable for welcoming us and to @pulitzercenter for supporting this reporting. * 📸 @guy_peterson 📝 @sophie_neiman

The war in Sudan entered its fourth year this week—but there is little hope for peace any time soon. Meeting with other world leaders in Berlin this week, UK foreign secretary Yvette Cooper called it the “greatest humanitarian crisis of the 21st century”. The Nuba Mountains have become a new frontline in the conflict, with the rebel movement that has long controlled the region announcing an alliance with the paramilitary RSF. Journalist @sophie_neiman and photographer @guy_peterson visited the region to report for Prospect. Their reporting was supported by the @pulitzercenter . 🔗: To read more, click the link in our bio 📷: All photographs by @guy_peterson , except where marked.

South Sudan’s blind football team wants to change the perception of visually impaired people, and inspire younger players, while training for the paralymics. * Like many great and unusual ideas, the inspiration for founding it came during lockdown. It was 2020 when coach Simon Madol Akol discovered the sport. Able to see himself, he had no idea football could be played by people without vision. “This is possible,” he remembers thinking. “This is something that can be done.” * The team’s beginnings were humble but always ambitious. Named the Bright Stars, at the start it had just two players. Playing on a dusty feild, they learned the rules of the game while recruiting more members. * From those origins, the Bright Stars have gone on to win an international championship in Uganda, becoming the first national team to bring a trophy back to South Sudan. Now, they see training to quality for the 2028 Paralympics, hoping to go all the way to Los Angeles. * It was a particular joy to report this one for @telegraph ! Read more about the players’ inspirational journey at the link in bio. * Stunning photos by @guy_peterson . With big thanks to Simon Madol Akol (@betwiin_23 ) and Light for the World! ✨⚽️

Schoolwork, jewellery and games lie under Beirut’s rubble. Families search for possessions as others still look for loved ones under the rubble after Israeli airstrikes kill hundreds and wounds more than 1200 people in the space of 10 minutes. Words by the brilliant @sallyhayd for the @thetimes

Israel’s war on Lebanon has displaced 1 million people inside Lebanon. The evacuation warnings that the Israel Defense Forces issued before launching vast amounts of air strikes across the country have emptied out large swaths of southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut as IDF troops invade the southern part of the country. Despite a tenuous ceasefire with Iran, there are no signs that the war in Lebanon will be winding down soon after Israel initiated a heavy aerial barrage that killed more than 200 people on Wednesday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the halt in hostilities does not include Lebanon, contradicting Pakistan, which helped to broker the pause. “All the shelters in Beirut demand a Lebanese ID, and make it clear the priority is for Lebanese families,” Lamis, 26, said. Being trans made things even more difficult. “ couldn’t even show my Syrian ID, which states that I was born a male, which puts me under the worst bullying and molestation,” she said. Shot for @washingtonpost thanks for the trust @nataliajimenez and @olivierclaurent

The Nuba Mountains, once shielded by their isolation, have become a new frontline in Sudan’s war with foreign powers driving the fighting. * On a dusty road in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains, an abandoned armored vehicle rusts in the sun. It’s a relic of decades of conflict between local rebel groups and the central government, donated to the Sudanese Armed Forces by allies in the Egyptian government. * Now, as the conflict enters its fourth year, those same allies are providing deadly weapons including drones to both the army and their rivals in the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. In a nearby displacement camp, a group of men see our notebooks and beg us to ask Egypt to stop supplying the Sudanese army. * In February, @sophie_neiman and I travelled to the remote Nuba Mountains to explore how foreign actors seek to profit from the violence, as civilians are pay the price. Across the country, some 3,000 people have died as a result of drone strikes since the war began, while 8.8 million have been internally displaced. * Journeying through the Nuba Mountains, we met displaced families along with injured fighters eager to return to battle. Read their stories in our latest for @ProspectMagazine . * Words by the talented @sophie_neiman and photos by me. Link in bio. * With many thanks to @Pulitzer_Center for supporting our reporting.

Senegals football team returns to Dakar with the Africa cup of Nations trophy parading through the streets. Shot for @afpphoto

PRINTS!!! Delivered straight to your door before Christmas! Fill your walls with something colourful from West Africa. Above are a few that people have had printed before which look fantastic on any wall but anything on my instagram and website can be printed. Orders can be made to most places in the world with the addition postage. All prints have a 5cm border and printed on the finest Hahnemühle photo rag paper to stay beautiful for as long as you have it on your wall.