Daniel Eldon (1970-1993) was an English photojournalist. During the summer of 1992, the famine in Somalia was raging. He flew from Kenya from the refugee camps. The international news agency, Reuters, spotted his work, and by Christmas, he was working for the company, shooting the increasingly desperate situation. He followed the story closely and was present at the U.S. Marine landing, where a barrage of international photographers and journalists were waiting for the American soldiers as they crept, faces blackened, off their landing craft in Mogadishu.
Throughout the spring of 1993, Eldon stayed in Mogadishu. The situation worsened, and the death of Pakistani peace keepers turned the conflict into an international incident. During this time, his pictures were featured in newspapers and magazines around the world. On 12 June 1993 his photo made a double-page spread in Newsweek magazine, as well as the covers of newspapers everywhere.
In April 1993, he published his first book, Somalia, a collection of photographs and collages which sold rapidly to aid workers and soldiers posted to the country considered by most to be more dangerous than Bosnia.
The violence and horror of the situation was extremely hard on Eldon. Although he had “had enough” by late June 1993, he agreed to stay on to cover the unfolding events. On 12 July 1993, he and three of his colleagues raced across Mogadishu to cover the bombing of what was thought to be General Aideed’s headquarters. In the ensuing confusion, all four young men were beaten, clubbed and stoned to death by an angry mob furious about the death of over 50 at the hands of U.S. and U.N. soldiers.
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