Sahara: A Journey through the Tuareg Rebellions of Niger and Mali

Al Jazeera's Baiba Ould Mhadi and May Ying Welsh travelled into the heart of the Sahara desert and discovered a conflict for uranium, the environment and ethnic self determination.

The Tuareg are a race of nomadic animal herders indigenous to the Sahara who sit atop some of the largest uranium reserves on earth. They are also among the world's poorest people, struggling to survive in a desert that, due to climate change and intensive mineral exploitation, is becoming more unlivable with each passing year.

The journey through the Sahara trip explores how standard mobile technology such as a Nokia N95 handset can not only be used to capture high quality images but can also be geo-tagged so the exact location of where the shot was taken can be known. The ability for journalists to be able to do this using a standard Nokia phone has great potential. Geo-tracking software installed on the phone was also used, which utilised the GPS function of the Nokia to plot the route of the journey through the Sahara onto an interactive map. The images on the map illustration shown here were all taken from a Nokia N95.