Chadian men walk through a sandstorm that engulfed the region around the Egyptian border near Sallum on March 31, where an estimated 2500 people are still stranded, having fled the Libyan revolution. Many of those at the border are sleeping outside under blankets and make-shift shelters, the Egyptian authorities refusing to allow even any semi-permanent structures, such as tents.
For me, this would be my final day working at the border. This last trip would cost me my left eye for a few days. An infection would seal it shut for a week. But I had an out. A comfortable bed in Khartoum, and then Cairo. Clean water and time for repose. For the thousands stranded at the border, right now, there is no end in sight. And no sign of an end to the fighting raging in Libya.