1-148-758 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Boer families in a British concentration camp at Eshowe, Zululand, 2nd Boer War, 1900. This represented the first use of the internment of civilians in camps in wartime. The objective of the British was to hamper the Boer insurgents by removing civilians from the land, thereby restricting the fighters' food supplies. Diet and sanitary conditions in the camps were poor and some 28,000 internees died from disease and malnutrition.