I’ve been an admirer of Ed Ou’s work for awhile. He’s a young photographer doing fascinating, important and extremely challenging stories the world over. His latest is Escape from Civil Unrest, which you can see in full along with his powerful descriptions on the Reportage by Getty website. It follows a group of Somali refugees trying to escape to Yemen by boat. Amazing.

The night smells of cold sweat and noxious kerosene as the surging waters off the Horn of Africa toss this makeshift fishing boat in the rough tide. Creaking under the weight of forty-five frightened Somali refugees, their bodies cramped and huddled in a vessel that is meant for fish not human cargo, and built to hold not more than five souls

Over forty refugees ride crammed in a tiny boat in the middle of the night from Djibouti March 29, 2010 to Yemen. (c) Ed Ou