Since 2025, I have been collaborating with a missionary community on an architectural and antropological project in one of the most remote borderlands of Africa, stretching between South Sudan and Ethiopia. This harsh yet beautiful landscape is home to the Nyangatom, a nomadic pastoralist tribe whose name carries a heavy historical irony. Neighboring tribes originally mocked them as Nyam Etom ("elephant eaters"), a derogatory term pointing to their poverty and desperate reliance on hunting. However, the proximity to the Sudanese civil war completely changed their destiny, flooding their territory with black-market weaponry. Today, they are known as Nyang Atom ("yellow rifles"), a name earned because almost every member now carries an assault rifle. Through my work in architectural projects and documentary photography, I have witnessed the striking and painful contrast that defines their daily existence. On one hand, there is the undeniable beauty of the Nyangatom: their vibrant traditions, their deep connection to the land, and the elegant, intricate beaded necklaces worn by the women. On the other hand, there is the cold, constant presence of firearms that have become as common as a shepherd’s staff. The endless flow of smuggled weapons across this lawless border has made lethal violence devastatingly easy, turning age-old ancestral disputes over water and cattle into highly deadly encounters. "The Yellow Rifles" does not seek to judge, but to expose this fragile reality—capturing the tribe's immense cultural dignity alongside the heavy shadow of the gun—in the hope of inspiring a much-needed, peaceful path toward resolving these intertribal conflicts.