Photo Essay: South Sudan – five years on

Photos and words: Robert X Fogarty @crisisaction.org

Five years ago on 9 July, South Sudan became the world’s newest country. Since, then, in spite of the enormous excitement and hope with which the country was born, a civil war has claimed more than 50,000 lives and devastated the economy. A fragile peace deal was struck in August 2015 and has so far held, though there remain deep wounds to heal. 

We went to South Sudan thinking we’d take photos of women who were working on peace issues. And we certainly did that. But what I realised early on in the trip was that everyone here had lost someone.

We decided to spend time asking subjects to talk about their loved ones and people they’ve lost. Here, on this page, you’ll find portraits of people who are all bonded by loss.