Ben Curtis has covered stories across the Middle East and Africa, including conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon, Kenya, Liberia and Iraq. He also covered Iran's elections in 2009 and the Athens Olympics. More recently he has been working on the political upheavals in Egypt and Libya. Curtis is currently AP’s chief photographer for East Africa. His photographs have won a number of awards, including a World Press Photo award in 2005 for his coverage of Togolese postelection violence.

A Guinea fan in costume before the African Nations Cup Group C soccer match between Zambia and Guinea at the Border Guard Stadium in Alexandria, Egypt, Thursday, January 26, 2006. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

An armed resident gestures a victory sign in the main square in Zawiya, 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Tripoli, in Libya, Sunday, February 27, 2011. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

In this photo taken during a government-organised visit for foreign media, a pro-Gadhafi fighter makes his evening prayers in the desert as a plume of smoke rises from the burning oil refinery in Ras Lanouf, 380 miles (615 kilometers) southeast of the capital Tripoli, in Libya Saturday, March 12, 2011. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

A rebel fighter holds a rocket propelled grenade launcher, near the front line in Brega, Libya Monday, April 4, 2011. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

Weary Libyan rebels take a nap on the central reservation of the main road leading to the front line, on the outskirts of Ajdabiya, Libya Monday, April 18, 2011. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

Libyan rebel fighters pray in the desert on hearing claims from other rebels that an airstrike further up the road towards Brega had hit rebel forces killing at least two and injuring more than a dozen, at the west gate of Ajdabiya, Libya, Thursday, April 7, 2011. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

A Somali schoolgirl sits at her desk during a lesson in the town of Dhobley, currently under control by Kenyan military and Somali government forces, in Somalia Tuesday, February 21, 2012. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

An Ultra-Orthodox Jew makes a derogatory gesture to media and police, due to them working on a Saturday covering and policing the protest, at a demonstration against a municipal parking lot that is open on the Jewish Sabbath, in Jerusalem Saturday, July 16, 2011. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

Kenyan army soldier Nicholas Munyanya, wearing a helmet on which is written in Kiswahili “Tea in Kismayo”, referring to a key strategic Somali town under the control of al-Shabab, checks his ammunition belt near the town of Dhobley, currently under control by Kenyan military and Somali government forces, in Somalia Tuesday, February 21, 2012. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

A local Maasai tribesman places his hand on the tusk of a tranquilized wild elephant during an anti-poaching elephant-collaring operation near Kajiado, in southern Kenya, Tuesday, December 3, 2013. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

A Maasai warrior wears his hair in the traditional style, at the annual Maasai Olympics in the Sidai Oleng Wildlife Sanctuary near to Mt Kilimanjaro, in southern Kenya Saturday, December 13, 2014. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

A young girl runs past pro-peace graffiti written during the post-election violence of the previous election in 2007 and a poster of presidential candidate Raila Odinga, center-right, in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya Wednesday, March 6, 2013. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

A young Rwandan girl mimics the photographer taking her photograph, at a public ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, at Amahoro stadium in Kigali, Rwanda Monday, April 7, 2014. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

Two-month-old orphaned baby elephant Ajabu is given a dust-bath in the red earth after being fed milk from a bottle by a keeper, as she is too young to do it herself, at an event to mark World Environment Day at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, June 5, 2013. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

Two-month-old orphaned baby elephant Ajabu is given a dust-bath in the red earth after being fed milk from a bottle by a keeper, at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, June 5, 2013. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

A Chadian soldier wearing reflective sunglasses observes the convoy ahead of him, as Chadian soldiers who are fighting in support of Central African Republic president Francois Bozize, ride on the road leading to Damara, about 70km (44 miles) north of the capital Bangui, Central African Republic Wednesday, January 2, 2013. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

A Maasai warrior holds up his stick to line his sight, right, as he prepares to throw a Rungu, a type of wooden throwing club also known as a knobkerry, left, in a throwing competition at the annual Maasai Olympics in the Sidai Oleng Wildlife Sanctuary near to Mt Kilimanjaro, in southern Kenya Saturday, December 13, 2014. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

A displaced boy mimics the photographer taking a picture of him, using a fake plastic jewel, at a United Nations compound which has become home to thousands of people displaced by the recent fighting, in the capital Juba, South Sudan Sunday, December 29, 2013. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

A Kenyan man sits in the cab of a destroyed truck used as a makeshift roadblock while a tyre burns on the roof, as he and others enforce the roadblock, during post-election violence in Kisumu, Kenya, Tuesday, January 29, 2008. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

Protesters wear masks, the left in the colors of the Kenyan national flag, as they join others carrying mock coffins and red-painted crosses, symbolizing the blood of the 28 non-Muslims singled out and killed in the recent attack on a bus in Mandera by Somali militant group al-Shabab, outside government offices in downtown Nairobi, Kenya Tuesday, November 25, 2014. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

A supporter of Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party wears a head-dress made of oranges, the party's color, as she attends a rally to welcome Odinga back to the country, in downtown Nairobi, Kenya Saturday, May 31, 2014. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

A supporter of main challenger and reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, not wanting to be photographed, hides her face using a poster of him as she waits in the stands at an election rally at the Heidarnia stadium in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, June 9, 2009. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

A mourner wearing a banner as a skirt showing the face of South African President Jacob Zuma observes the scene from a hilltop overlooking the burial site of Nelson Mandela in Qunu, South Africa Sunday, December 15, 2013. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

In this Thursday, January 2, 2014 file photo, 7-month-old boy Dhieu Ding Chol, left, and 5-month-old boy Thuch Jong Kuch, right, are held by their mothers as they receive treatment for dehydration, vomiting and diarrhea, likely caused by the lack of any sanitation where they are now living, at a clinic run by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) set up in a school building in the town of Awerial, South Sudan. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

Nicole Tashly, 2, lies quietly on the ground holding the white rose her mother Esther Muthoni, left, instructed her to lay at the memorial monument while they remember her father Paul Muriithi Muriuki who died in the Westgate Mall attack, as they and other families of the victims lay flowers and remember, at the Amani Garden memorial site in the Karura Forest in Nairobi, Kenya Sunday, September 21, 2014. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

In this photo taken Saturday, January 25, 2014, a male lion walks shortly after being shot with tranquilizer darts, in order to fit a GPS-tracking collar, by a team led by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) in Nairobi National Park in Kenya. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

A female protester wears a mask as she joins others to carry mock coffins and red-painted crosses, symbolizing the blood of the 28 non-Muslims singled out and killed in the recent attack on a bus in Mandera by Somali militant group al-Shabab, outside government offices in downtown Nairobi, Kenya Tuesday, November 25, 2014. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)