Sylvain Cherkaoui, photojournaliste

Ari Gaji Gadjimi, 18 years old, from Ngourtoua, 28 km from Diffa. The rebels attacked his village one night in September 2015. “There were five of us in the room asleep, when the rebels burst in. When we realized they wanted to slit our throats, we tried to run away, so they opened fire,” he says. “I got hit, but I was lucky: the bullet went straight through my right cheek.” Ari recognized four of the rebels: “They came from the next village, but I didn’t dare tell the authorities who they were. One of them came to the displaced people’s camp later to offer his condolences. Someone recognized him and the authorities arrested him.” Life is not easy in the camp: “When we ran away, the animals ate all the harvest. I only managed to salvage a few bags of rice.” Ari would like to go back to fishing and farming: “But the fighting isn’t over and it’s too dangerous to cross the Komadougou river. We could get killed!” Time drags by for the young people in the camp: “I just sit here, doing nothing all day. There’s absolutely nothing here for us.”