Refugees find solace in art

Khadija Hussein Jamah, a 33 year-old mother of six, has been living in Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya for 24 years. The young Somali is one of several female refugees who find their solace in art. 60 artists from Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo were invited to show their work by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Artist Stephenal Takiy is from the Nuer tribe in South Sudan.The conflict raging in Africa's youngest nation has also been called one of the most cruel. Takiy has been in Kakuma refugee camp since 1992. His paintings send a stark message about the terrible costs of the war. This one shows how soldiers use defilement and rape as weapons.

Two women stand by the roadside, accompanied by their family puppy, after fleeing their homes in one of the regions hit by violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Like so many other refugee artists, Alfa Mkangi Mukangala’s work is a product of his personal experience.

Congolese Alfa Mkangi Mukangala also depicts the more peaceful sides of village life, as shown in the painting of villagers dancing to the drumbeat at sunset. But most of his artwork depicts the fear that is sweeping through a country where people are still being killed, as the government battles rebels and forces loyal to opposition groups.

Another work by Alfa Mukangi Mukangala: this eerily quiet village in his country, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It looks abandoned. Have all the inhabitants fled the violence? According to the UNHCR, 2.7 million people were displaced in DRC in 2014.

A woman with a child strapped to her chest, carryies water through the village. Ethiopian artist Triku Fekele says he spends a lot of time praying for peace. The village depicted is in southern Ethiopia and is the home he left more than a decade ago.