BEWARE!!! "WAR IS HELL"_cries a Nigerian Youth

Everyday people talk about starting another war
without remembering that war is hell. Thank God
for the War Journalist who helps us remember.
One such a Journalist is the Frenchman Gilles
Caron who first saw war as a French soldier in
Algeria and hated it so much that he stopped
fighting and spent the last 4 months of his
Military service in French chains.
He then went on to fashion photography which he
found boring and returned to the front this time
without a gun but with a camera and has given
us some of the most thought provoking photos
from various conflicts including our own Biafra.

My favourite ( if we can call it that ) is this one of
wounded Biafran soldiers being left by their mates
as the battle turns and the Federals advance.,
Just as you see the back of the fleeing Biafrans
you can take inventory of the fright and horror of
the surviving wounded soldier in his eyes pleading
with the remaining troops ( Caron included ) not
to be left behind to a certain death.

Instances like this made Gilles Caron drink heavily
and you sure can’t blame him because I would be
shooting heroin just to be able to go to sleep.
So as you rattle your swords and gnash your
teeth crying for war…remember this side and that
the young man on the ground is someone’s son,
brother or even a Father. Worse still he may never
get to be a Father.
WAR IS HELL - Photo Biafra April 1968 © Gilles
Caron for the Gilles Caron Foundation
- Iwedi Ojinmah -