Simon Townsley

1 month ago | telegraph.co.uk | Lilia Sebouai |Simon Townsley

The Mother of Mercy hospital in the country's remote Nuba mountains has become a vital lifeline for refugees fleeing war and famineDr Tom Catena can't remember the last time he had a day off. The American missionary running the biggest hospital in Sudan's Nuba mountains says he has been on call pretty much 24 hours a day since he opened the facility 17 years ago. "It's been years," he said.

1 month ago | msn.com | Venetia Rainey |Akhtar Mohammad Makoii |Roland Oliphant |Lilia Sebouai |Simon Townsley

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1 month ago | telegraph.co.uk | Sophie Neiman |Simon Townsley

Maria Nakoru crouches at the bottom of a dirt hollow, one metre deep. She grips a metal pike as she strikes the walls, chasing glimmers of gold through the choking dust. In Uganda's northeastern Karamoja region, thousands of artisanal miners carve a fragile livelihood from the earth. Nearby, others labour in their own plots, surrounded by mounds of soil, like freshly dug graves. A breeze lifts the ochre hue of the parched dirt into the air.

1 month ago | telegraph.co.uk | Tom Parry |Simon Townsley

On a mountain of putrid waste towering above the Dhaka skyline, destitute ragpickers are scavenging for plastic. For these illegal recyclers, crowded around a mechanical digger as it disgorges scoops of foul-smelling garbage, the two million tonnes of plastic packaging which Bangladesh dumps into the environment every year is the carrion on which they prey.

2 months ago | telegraph.co.uk | Lilia Sebouai |Simon Townsley

Real hunger makes people desperate. On a dirt runway in Sudan’s Nuba mountains, women sift through sand searching for small nuggets of grain. Earlier, hundreds of sacks stuffed with maize, beans and salt were hurled from the cargo door of a low-flying ex-military transport plane, some of them splitting open as they hit the ground.