Seven years ago Abu Bakarr Kargbo had his hands hacked off by rebels during Sierra Leone's brutal civil war. Today he still lives with his wife and three children in an abandoned camp for amputees, hoping for a better future.
A series of photographs about his life as an amputee has won this year's Luis Valtueña International Humanitarian Photography Award, organised by Médecins du Monde UK. The series is the work of a Greek freelance photographer, Yannis Kontos, and was chosen from almost 1000 submissions.
The award was established 10 years ago as a tribute to four humanitarian workers who were murdered in conflicts in Rwanda and Bosnia-Hercegovina. It aims to highlight human rights abuses around the world.
When Kontos photographed Kargbo, who used to be a construction worker, the amputee was trying to support his family by begging on the streets of Freetown. The Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission has declared that amputees ought to get a pension, but Kargbo and his family have seen nothing so far.
Other subjects explored in the photographs submitted for the award include the effects of a cholera epidemic in Angola, the struggle by Afghan women to assert their rights and freedoms, and refugees risking their lives in dugout canoes to gain entry to the Canary Islands.
Susan Wright, director of Médecins du Monde UK, said: “Humanitarian action is often the only hope for civil populations plagued by crises. All too often aid workers, journalists, and photographers are the only witnesses of human rights abuses. These photographs help to give a voice to people who would not otherwise be heard, which, as well as providing medical care, is part of Médecins du Monde's remit.”
An exhibition of the prizewinning photographs is being held at the Institut Français d'Ecosse, 13 Randolph Crescent, Edinburgh, until 28 March.