David Yambio is only 26 years old, but his biography reads like that of a man two times his age.
Born in Sudan during the second civil war, his family forced to flee to Congo and later to the Central African Republic, where they had no access to education nor resources. He returned to South Sudan when he was 7, then at the age of 12 he was abducted by the LRA, the army led by Joseph Kony. He fought as a child soldier for over a year, then escaped only to find himself forcibly conscripted by the Sudanese government at the age of 16.
He became a refugee at 17, crossed half of Africa to find himself in Libya, where he was tortured, exploited, forced to labor, to arbitrary detentions, kidnappings and he was sold to militias to fight in the Libyan civil war.
After 4 failed attempts to reach Europe, he started working with Libyan organisations and international ngo’s to fight for the rights of refugees. He started radio programs, co-founded the organisation "Refugees in Libya,", then he spent months on the run for the Libyan secret service. He then did a fifth and finally successful attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea. David now lives in Italy where he launches campaign after campaign to raise awareness and pursues legal action for the cause of refugees in Libya and people on the move in the North African region.
