Since February 2007 a group of mostlyTuareg rebels have been fighting a low-level insurgent war against the government of Niger.
From a series of bases in the remote, arid Air Mountains, which sit astride the vast seas of dunes of the Sahara, the rebellion seeks to gain a greater share of the country’s uranium wealth and to prevent the fragile ecosystem of Tuareg pastoral lands from damage due to mining.
These images were taken during three weeks of traveling with the Niger Movement for Justice, as the group is known, in April and May 2008. Because this remote region is completely cut off to the news media, these images offer a rare glimpse of the rebellion
and the people it claims it is protecting.
The images also document the timeless yet changing way of life of the Tuareg people, whose nomadic livelihoods have been threatened by climate change, globalization, migration and mining.
