Mohamed Amin (29 August 1943 – 23 November 1996) was a Kenyan photojournalist. Amin's filming of

Michael Buerk Michael Duncan Buerk (born 18 February 1946) is a British journalist and newsreader. He presented BBC News from 1973 to 2002 and has been the host of BBC Radio 4's ''The Moral Maze'' since 1990. He was also the presenter of BBC One's docudrama ...

's report of the 1984

Ethiopian famine Famines in Ethiopia have occurred periodically throughout the history of the country, which was formerly known as Abyssinia. The economy was based on subsistence agriculture, with an aristocracy that consumed the surplus. Due to a number of caus ...

brought international attention to the crisis and eventually helped start the charity wave that resulted in

Live Aid Live Aid was a multi-venue benefit concert held on Saturday 13 July 1985, as well as a music-based fundraising initiative. The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 fami ...

concerts. Amin died in November 1996 when his flight

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was a scheduled flight serving the route Addis Ababa–Nairobi–Brazzaville–Lagos–Abidjan. On 23 November 1996, the aircraft serving the flight, a Boeing 767-200ER, was hijacked en route from Addis Ababa to Nai ...

was hijacked and crashed into the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

near

Grande Comore Grande Comore () is an island in Comoros off the coast of Africa. It is the largest island in the Comoros nation. Most of its population is of the Comorian ethnic group. Its population is about 316,600. The island's capital is Moroni, Comoros, ...

Life and work

Amin was born on 29 August 1943 in

Eastleigh Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the 2011 census. The town lies on the River Itchen, o ...

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

. He developed an interest in photography at school.Episode One, '' Mo & Me'' He founded the ''Camerapix'' company in 1963 in

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (; from ar, دَار السَّلَام, Dâr es-Selâm, lit=Abode of Peace) or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over s ...

and moved the company to

three years later. During the 1970s, he became one of the most relied-upon African news photographers, reporting on wars and coups all through the continent, and his pictures were often used by Western news media. Amin's most influential moment came when his filming, along with

's reporting of the 1984 Ethiopian famine brought international attention to the crisis and eventually helped start the charity wave that resulted in

concerts. Apart from Ethiopian famine, he contributed exclusive photos of the fall of

Idi Amin Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern w ...

and of

Mengistu Haile Mariam Mengistu Haile Mariam ( am, መንግሥቱ ኀይለ ማሪያም, pronunciation: ; born 21 May 1937) is an Ethiopian politician and former army officer who was the head of state of Ethiopia from 1977 to 1991 and General Secretary of the Work ...

, and was author of numerous books, including ''Journey Through Pakistan'', ''Pilgrimage to Mecca'', and covered various themes like East African Wildlife and the

Uganda Railway The Uganda Railway was a metre-gauge railway system and former British state-owned railway company. The line linked the interiors of Uganda and Kenya with the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa in Kenya. After a series of mergers and splits, the lin ...

. Amin also published issues of ''Selamta'', the

Ethiopian Airlines Ethiopian Airlines (commonly referred to as Ethiopian; am, የኢትዮጵያ አየር መንገድ, translit=Ye-Ītyōṗṗyā āyer menged), formerly ''Ethiopian Air Lines'' (EAL), is the flag carrier of Ethiopia, and is wholly owned by t ...

in-flight magazine. Amin was not only active in Africa, but also in the Middle East. He covered the Palestinian

Black September Black September ( ar, أيلول الأسود; ''Aylūl Al-Aswad''), also known as the Jordanian Civil War, was a conflict fought in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan between the Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF), under the leadership of King Hussein ...

uprising to seize control of

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

in September 1970. He was able to move among the Palestinian forces where Western journalists could not. In 1991, Amin lost his left arm during an ammunition dump explosion in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

during the

Ethiopian Civil War The Ethiopian Civil War was a civil war in Ethiopia and present-day Eritrea, fought between the Ethiopian military junta known as the Derg and Ethiopian-Eritrean anti-government rebels from 12 September 1974 to 28 May 1991. The Derg overthre ...

. Mohamed Amin, 53, Camera Eye During the Famine in Ethiopia
" ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. November 26, 1996.

Death

Amin boarded

on 23 November 1996, with 61-year-old Brian Tetley, a colleague who wrote the text for Amin's photography books, to travel to Nairobi after a business trip to Ethiopia. Hijackers stormed the cockpit of ET-AIZ, the

Boeing B767-260ER The Boeing 767 is an American wide-body aircraft developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The aircraft was launched as the 7X7 program on July 14, 1978, the prototype first flew on September 26, 1981, and it was certified o ...

used for the flight, and forced the pilot,

Leul Abate Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was a scheduled flight serving the route Addis Ababa–Nairobi–Brazzaville–Lagos–Abidjan. On 23 November 1996, the aircraft serving the flight, a Boeing 767-200ER, was hijacked en route from Addis Ababa to Nai ...

, to fly east over the

to Australia. Amin attempted to rally the passengers to attack the hijackers and confronted the hijackers, trying to stop the scenario. ET-AIZ ran out of fuel and Abate ditched the aircraft off the coast of the

Comoros Islands The Comoro Islands or Comoros (Shikomori ''Komori''; ar, جزر القمر , ''Juzur al-qamar''; french: Les Comores) form an archipelago of volcanic islands situated off the southeastern coast of Africa, to the east of Mozambique and northwe ...

. ET-AIZ broke into pieces, and as Amin was standing, his body hit the airplane wall causing his death. He was 53."Ocean Landing" or "African Hijack," ''

Mayday Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications. It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiza ...

'' Tetley also did not survive the crash.

Legacy

In June 2006, ''

Mo and Me Mo or MO may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Mo, a girl in the ''Horrible Histories'' TV series * Mo, also known as Mortimer, in the novel ''Inkheart'' by Cornelia Funke * Mo, in the webcomic '' Jesus and Mo'' * Mo, the ...

'', an

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...

documentary film about Amin was premiered. It won Best International Documentary at the

Los Angeles International Film Festival LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...

. Al Jazeera and Camerapix funded the film. Amin's son, Salim Amin, runs the Camerapix company as of 2008. Mo Amin is the inspiration for the

A24 news channel A24 is an independent pan-African production studio, an 'African voice for Africa', based in Nairobi, Kenya. It started operations on 13 May 2008. Overview The project is the brainchild of Salim Amin and Asif Sheikh, Salim is a Kenyan photojou ...

, a proposed independent pan-African 24-hour 'African voice for Africa' which commenced broadcasting from Nairobi on 19 September 2008. Mohamed Amin worked with numerous journalists and writers, including

Tahir Shah Tahir Shah ( fa, طاهر شاه, gu, તાહિર શાહ; ''né'' Sayyid Tahir al-Hashimi (Arabic: سيد طاهر الهاشمي); born 16 November 1966) is a British author, journalist and documentary maker of Afghan-Indian descent. ...

and Colin Blane, as well as

References

External links

Mohamed Amin Foundation

on December 9, 1996 of ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' - Announcement of deaths of Mohamed Amin and Brian Tetley
INSIDE AFRICA: At the Movies
"

''

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

''. February 24, 2007. -- interview transcripts, discussing Mohamed Amin and ''Mo & Me''
''Mo & Me''
-

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Amin, Mohamed 1943 births 1996 deaths Photojournalists Kenyan journalists Kenyan photographers Ethiopian Airlines Kenyan amputees Members of the Order of the British Empire Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1996 Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the Comoros People from Nairobi 20th-century journalists

Life and work

Death

Legacy

References

Further reading

External links