While Jordan hosts refugees of 44 different nationalities, African refugees' ordeals are heightened with what they describe as negligence and discrimination.

Hudan Al-Sheikh, a thirty year old refugee from Somalia who speaks only broken Arabic, spoke to 7iber about her experience seeking refuge in Jordan, after completing a similar journey from her home city of Mogadishu to Yemen years earlier. Hudan fled Mogadishu in 1997 at the age of 15 after her entire family was killed..

By Fida Adely Sumayah1, a 35-year-old engineer working in Amman, had been commuting from her village in the north for 10 years, a commute that could take as much as two hours.  After 10 years of this daily journey, she finally convinced her parents to let her live in Amman, and now lives in an.

“The Syrians and the Iraqis are not better than us. All of our neighbors are Syrian. If their kids get sick, they can go to the hospital and receive care. But when we go, they say they aren’t offering treatment to Somalis… We are refugees too.” These are the words of Aisha, a Somali refugee.

“We’re the oldest refugees, we’re the ones who parted the sea.” That is how Idris Idris, an Eritrean refugee living in Amman, describes the history of Eritreans’ displacement to every part of the globe. Idris and other Eritrean refugees are demanding equal treatment by UNHCR in material assistance and in finding durable solutions for them.

Judy Cami was visiting a friend when militants attacked her family home in Kenya, killing everyone present. Upon returning to the scene, Judy fled, knowing only that what had befallen her family was the result of a conflict between Christian militias that included her father due to a financial dispute. Judy fled to her friend’s.

Abdelqassim Khaleel is a refugee from the Sudanese region of Darfur. Khaleel’s personal documents include a Sudanese passport, a UNHCR asylum seeker card and a high-school diploma that is now worthless given that the 29 year old is barred from working or continuing his education in Jordan. Khaleel came to Jordan in 2013, after spending.

Sadia Mahmoud Husni fled her home city of Mogadishu nine years ago with her eldest son Aymen, after losing her mother and son to the violence that had engulfed her country and her sister to starvation. Having left behind two daughters and the rest of her family, Umm Ayman [the mother of Ayman in Arabic].

From blockbuster works by seasoned writers, to debut novels, short stories, translations, and poetry, Marcia Lynx Qualey recommends 16 books to read in 2016.

Syrian and Jordanian women get together in a food festival in Ramtha, and share their stories and culinary traditions.