Sumaya Sadurni, photographer, 1989-2022

Sumaya Sadurni, who has died aged 32 in a automotive crash in northwestern Uganda, was a proficient freelance photographer whose work was printed on the planet’s most famed publications, together with the Monetary Instances.

A Ugandan NGO employee, Thomas Mugisha, additionally died within the accident. Deeply emotional, dedicated to her tales, and intensely humorous, Sadurni was a drive of nature — the best companion for reporting round east Africa.

In August final yr, whereas she was on task with me for the FT in South Sudan, we have been threatened with arrest for no motive. In the long run, after getting an earful from Sadurni, the native head of nationwide safety determined to not put us in a cell however despatched us again to our lodgings. “Go, I heard sufficient,” he stated, slamming on his desk. “Me too,” she retorted, slamming the commander’s workplace door.

“I had a good time, qué risa!” or what amusing we had, she texted after parting methods and returning to Kampala, the place she lived.

The Ugandan capital proved difficult at occasions too. In 2020, whereas masking a tense and at occasions violent election marketing campaign, Sadurni was singled out as a foe, with out justification, by officers loyal to president Yoweri Museveni. But she continued working.

“She went by so a lot hassle to observe us and report the reality,” stated Ugandan opposition chief Robert Kyagulanyi, generally known as Bobi Wine, who stood in opposition to Museveni in final yr’s election. “She was a powerful journalist, all the time humorous, by no means fearing the highly effective.”

Of Mexican and Spanish descent, Sumaya Sadurni Carrasco was born in Santiago on the finish of the dictatorial reign of Augusto Pinochet. She spent most of her youth roving round Latin America earlier than settling in Switzerland for highschool. After graduating from the UK’s College of Westminster she went again to Chile to cowl the scholar protests within the early 2010s earlier than spending time within the UK photographing one in every of her passions, heavy steel gigs.

After a visit to Uganda in 2016 to see a childhood pal, she determined to base herself there and travelled typically across the continent the place she demonstrated her expertise as a photographer and attraction as a human being — dancing with South Sudanese rebels and South African thugs alike. Her photos offered a window on to a continent the place her buddies have been legion.

“She was an unbelievable younger girl, lively and love for Uganda,” stated David Pilling, the FT’s Africa editor. “She took dangers for us in South Sudan to assist carry one other story she cared deeply about to a wider viewers.”

Certainly, for Sumy, as she was recognized by everybody, every part went deep, particularly so when it got here to ladies who survived traumas — from warfare wounds to acid assaults. “Sumy was keen about everybody she photographed. She constructed belief, respect and love with each girl earlier than taking their {photograph},” stated Catherine Byaruhanga, an in depth pal of Sadurni who’s the BBC Information Africa correspondent. “‘I really like you’ have been three phrases Sumy by no means withheld. Her hugs have been deep and filled with emotion.” She is survived by her dad and mom and her brother Jorge.