IDP (Internally Displaced Person)
Plievo, Ingushetia

One morning, I found this mother holding her little daughter while waiting in a distribution line in Plievo, Ingushetia. Several days per week, tens of thousands of people line up for basic supplies provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Most of the IDPs are from Chechnya, having fled the war. They live in tent camps and old abandoned cattle barns. They do not know when they will be able to return to their homes in Chechnya, nor what they will find when they do. The children and women suffer the most along with the elderly. Civilians are the true victims in a war. The little girl speaks so much about the vulnerability of civilians without uttering a single word.

© copyright fred clarke / ICRC 2006