Somali
Two weeks in Mogadishu
Shot in Somalia, September 2007
Commissioned and broadcast by ITN / Channel 4 News

WINNER: Rory Peck Award for News 2008

Duguf’s footage shows distressing scenes of violence, destruction and human misery in Mogadishu as the insurgency erupted into almost daily battles on the streets in Somalia’s capital.

He captured the terrifying level of violence on the streets where there was nothing to shield local people – or journalists – and at one point became a target himself. 

the city’s hospital Duguf met a man whose wife and three children had just been killed in a mortar attack on their home. And in the makeshift camps outside the city, a woman asked him to film her starving children.

The judges said the film had “drama, vividness, humanity and context.” One said: “This is one of the most difficult stories in the world to tell. But he told it with clarity, courage and an amazing eye for detail. The camerawork is extraordinary in the circumstances“.


Biography  
Abdullahi Farah Duguf, widely known as ‘Duguf’, has been working as a cameraman in Somalia since 1993. He has also worked extensively with international broadcasters and agencies as a fixer, in particular APTN.

Farah says that the deteriorating situation in Somalia over the past two years has made it almost impossible for him and most other journalists to operate there. He has decided to seek refuge in Djibouti for the foreseeable future.