David Yambio, a human rights defender and spokesperson for refugees in Libya, was born in 1997, during the civil war in Sudan. He lived the ejection and was forcibly recruited as a child soldier by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) between 2009 and 2010. In 2016, he fled his country and embarked on a dangerous journey through several African countries, suffering torture, exploitation and imprisonment. In Libya, after being returned several times from European borders and having been enslaved, he began collaborating with international organisations such as UNHCR and IOM, standing out as an activist against human rights violations.
In 2021, he co-founded "Refugees in Libya" to drive political change and raise awareness of the refugee situation. In 2022, he led a campaign against UNHCR in Geneva, achieving the release of refugees arbitrarily arrested. In June 2023, he led another campaign in Brussels that helped to release 221 human rights defenders and is now working on their relocation to safe countries. He was a fellow at the Allianz Foundation (2023-2024) and is currently a Global Fellow in International Crimes and Responsibility at the ECCHR. He also takes part in initiatives such as the Pact for Equality, supported by Avocats Sans Frontières, and is part of the EPIM forum, focused on migration in Europe.