The man that really started Live Aid

July the 13th 2025 was the 40th anniversary of Live Aid.  The aim of the legendary concert which bought together artists in the UK and USA was to raise money to help Ethiopia at the time when the country was experiencing the worst famine of the 20th Century.  To mark the anniversary, the BBC broadcast produced a great three-part documentary featuring the likes of Bob Geldof, Midge Ure and other key players, before showing the Live Aid concert in full over a Saturday night.

But a key player in the story is missing from the documentary - Mohamed “Mo” Amin.

Even though most people have never heard of him, it was he - more than anyone else - who triggered the sequence of events that culminated in the creation Live Aid.

He is also one of just a handful of people who could say with absolute certainty that their images changed the course of history.

By 1984, Mo Amin was already a legendary camera operator, photographer, journalist and producer based in Nairobi.  As well as having a reputation for being a hard worker, he was also known for being a hard-nosed business man - reportedly even charging clients for the stamps he used to send in his invoices.

Mo was highly in demand.  Working through his own agency Camerapix, his stills images went around the world - in addition, he made documentary films, published photography books and wrote for newspapers.  He also shot news footage - first on film, then video - that was distributed globally by Visnews, one of two main news agencies.  He often juggled all of these at the same time, earning him the nickname “Six Camera Mo”.

In May 1984, the famine in Ethiopia (caused by drought and wars) was already having a devastating effect, and it was Mo who helped break the story to the wider world in a piece he had published by the Kenyan Sunday Nation.

Over the course of the next six months, Mo worked every contact he had to travel around Ethiopia, navigating an immensely volatile political situation. The team managed to make trips to less affected parts of the country but the early reports that were transmitted had little effect whilst the worst affected areas around Mekele remained out of bounds.

Eventually the Ethiopian authorities gave in and granted Mo and the BBC team access, thinking it would not matter as the roads were impassable.  But Mo had a trick - he did a deal with World Vision, a charity that was operating in the area.  They had a plane but no permissions, whereas Mo had the permissions but no plane.

Finally after months of hard work, on the 19th of October 1984 Mo flew into Mekele alongside BBC reporters Mike Wooldridge and Michael Burke as well as Zack Njuguna,  another photographer from Camerapix.   The effects of the famine and war were far more devastating than any of the team had imagined.

Over the next two days, Mo filmed the pictures that accompanied Michael Burke’s legendary report - or maybe it should be that Michael Burke’s report accompanied Mo’s legendary pictures - which brought the famine to the world’s attention.

Three days later, they were back in Nairobi, from where the pictures were edited and sent to BBC News.  On the 24th of October 1984, the report was broadcast on the BBC news. What happened next took everyone by surprise.

The footage and stills Mo took over those two days are a perfect example of what happens when a camera is in the hands of a skilled practitioner and the global response is a result of what can happen when news coverage and art intersect.

It feels uncomfortable to label Mo’s images from Mekele with artistic superlatives but I would argue that their power, which made people sit up and take notice of the unfolding horror,  was in part because of the aesthetic that Mo brought to his work.

The report by Michael Burke and Mo spurred broadcasters, the public, and governments to spring into action.  After much pushing by the team at NBC’s London bureau and an intervention by the legendary anchor Tom Brokaw, NBC ran the story on its nightly news. On seeing the report, then US President Ronald Reagan immediately pledged around $45 million in aid.

And, of course, one person that was watching the BBC news that day was Bob Geldof.

Over the following years, Mo devoted much of his life to making sure the world did not forget what was happening in Ethiopia. It ended up taking over a big portion of his life, impacting his relationship with his family.  Alongside this mission, he carried on his everyday work.

In 1991, Mo was back in Addis Ababa - again with Michael Burke - reporting on the overthrow of Mengistu's regime.  On June the 4th, the retreating forces attacked the largest ammunitions store on the outskirts of the city as they were leaving Addis Ababa.  Thinking the attack was over, Mo, the BBC’s Colin Blaine, Michael Burke, and sound recordist John Mathai went to the site hoping for some powerful images.  Not long after they arrived, the rest of the arms store went up in a massive explosion which sadly killed John Mathai.

Mo was badly hurt and taken to the hospital where colleagues lined up to give blood.  Unfortunately the doctors had no choice but to remove the lower part of his left arm.  And with that his career as a cameraman seemed at an end.  But with much determination, he got a hold of the latest prosthetic arm — complete with a 360-degree rotating hand.  Then, with help from various colleagues and companies, a BetacamSP camcorder was adapted so he could carry on shooting.

In 1996, at the age of 56, Mo’s life came to a tragic end. He, along with long time colleague Brian Tetley, was aboard Ethiopian flight 961 when the plane was hijacked.  After hours of flying, the plane eventually ran out of fuel and crashed into the sea. Survivors say Mo was trying to organise the passengers to take on the hijackers, but as he was standing up when the plane hit the water, he was sadly among those that lost their lives.

The plane crash was filmed by a tourist sitting the beach, and in a strange twist there was a bizarre bidding war for the footage between Reuters (one of Mo’s clients) and APTN.

Eventually Mo’s body was recovered and he was laid to rest in Nairobi.

In 1984 when the report was still uppermost in people’s minds, Mo’s name seemed everywhere and the public was aware of the man and his great work. But over time, whilst Bob Geldof and Live Aid soaked into the public consciousness, Mo’s name faded into the background despite the fact that he continued to meet with politicians and raise awareness of the ongoing famine.

Whilst it is relatively common in other countries to acknowledge the person or people behind the camera, in the UK they are rarely mentioned.  The exception would be reports from war zones where operators such as Fred Scott and Darren Conway regularly - and rightly - get name checked.

But I passionately believe we should all know and remember Mo’s name and, more importantly, his work.  Not just because of his amazing body of work, but for his dedication to getting every story— especially the story of Ethiopia— out to the world.

One person who is working hard to keep Mo’s name alive is his son Salim.  When Mo died, Salim inherited Camerapix and the company still operates today.  As well as being a journalist in his own right, Salim has made two documentaries about his father and Live Aid.  “Mo and Me” charts his relationship with his father through Mo’s work and life.  His latest work “Stand Together As One,” describes the background to the famine , how Mo became involved and the subsequent work of Bob Geldof and others.  Both films are loving tribute from a son to his father.

There is only so much one can write in an article and it’s very hard to give a true sense of the man, his work, and exploits. As such, I would urge people to try and find the book “Mo, the story of Mohammad Amin” by his long-term colleague and friend Brian Tetley.

And hopefully we can all help Salim keep Mo’s name alive.

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* In the mid-90s, Visnews was owned jointly by NBC, the BBC, and Reuters.  Reuters took sole ownership and Visnews became Reuters TV.  Coincidentally, around the same time, Visnews’s rival WTN was bought by Associated Press and became APTN.