Freelance

The quiet is deafening – a long eerie silence punctuated by the symmetrical stamping of shiny boots on hard rock. Our land cruiser grinds to a halt and my cameras shoot of the seat, plunging into the dusty footwell. Twenty-four heavily armed soldiers from the Ethiopian National Defence Force parade past in green and brown fatigues, each shouldering a rifle of soviet origin. AK47, AK103, RPK, PS4, they have it all. The troupe marches on past us and down a windswept dust-strewn alley, clipping magazines as the disappear into the scrubland; it’s almost 6pm and soon the night sky will be their only illumination…