Develop Peace

Ahmed Sofa on the Cyclone of 1991

„It is very difficult for me to keep myself detached…“ wrote Ahmed Sofa on May 20, 1991. On April 29, 1991, a devastating cyclone had struck the southeast coast of Bangladesh, claiming more than 135,000 lives. On May 8, the writer had already set off with a group of young people to provide assistance on the ground.

Ahmed Sofa sent this report to Peter Dietzel and the association NETZ; it is being published here for the first time.

Ahmed Sofa (center) at the opening of a cyclone shelter on Materbari Island in 1993, which was built by the local population and the NGO Bangla-German Sampreeti as part of the reconstruction effort with support from the organization NETZ (photo: creative commons).
Ahmed Sofa at the celebration of the reconstruction in the Cox’s Bazar district in 1993, which Bangla-German Sampreeti had carried out with the support of the NETZ organization.