Ben Rawlence, Jonathan Cox

To the charity workers, Dadaab refugee camp is a humanitarian crisis; to the Kenyan government, it is a ‘nursery for terrorists’; to the western media, it is a dangerous no-go area; but to its half a million residents, it is their last resort.

Situated hundreds of miles from any other settlement, deep within the inhospitable desert of northern Kenya where only thorn bushes grow, Dadaab is a city like no other. Its buildings are made from mud, sticks or plastic, its entire economy is grey, and its citizens survive on rations and luck.

Over the course of four years, Rawlence became a first-hand witness to a strange and desperate limbo-land, getting to know many of those who have come there seeking sanctuary. Among them are Guled, a former child soldier who lives for football; Nisho, who scrapes an existence by pushing a wheelbarrow and dreaming of riches; Tawane, the indomitable youth leader; and schoolgirl Kheyro, whose future hangs upon her education. In City of Thorns, Rawlence interweaves the stories of nine individuals to show what life is like in the camp and to sketch the wider political forces that keep the refugees trapped there.

Lucid, vivid and illuminating, here is an urgent human story with deep international repercussions, brought to life through the people who call Dadaab home.

This event will be hosted by Jonathan Cox, who is currently deputy director of Citizens UK but previously spent more than a decade working on refugee issues with the Welsh Refugee Council.

Ben Rawlence has worked as a researcher for Human Rights Watch’s Africa division and in politics in Tanzania and the UK. He has written for The Guardian, New York Times, London Review of Books and BBC Radio 4. He lives in the Black Mountains, Wales. Rawlence’s latest book is City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp.