Political disputes
last month created a volatile situation in the young nation of South
Sudan. Violence has spread killing more than 1,000 and has driven
hundreds of thousand from their homes. Talks continue and UN
peacekeepers were mobilized to try to stop the crisis from escalating
further. --Leanne Burden Seidel ( 
One
of the few to have a mosquito net, a displaced family who fled the
recent fighting between government and rebel forces in Bor by boat
across the White Nile, sit under it after waking up in the morning in
the town of Awerial, South Sudan, Jan. 2. (Ben Curtis/Associated Press)
South
Sudanese men shelter under disused mobile staircases as young children
play on top at an makeshift IDP camp at the United Nations Mission in
South Sudan (UNMISS) compound in Juba Dec. 22. World leaders have
stepped up calls for South Sudan's feuding politicians to end fighting
that has pushed the country to the brink of civil war, after four US
servicemen were wounded when their aircraft came under fire. United
Nations chief Ban Ki-moon called Sunday for an immediate end to violence
in South Sudan, where the death toll is mounting from fighting between
rival forces loyal to the president and his sacked deputy. (Tony
Karumba/AFP/Getty Images) #
An
internally displaced man holds his son inside a United Nations Missions
in Sudan (UNMIS) compound in Juba Dec. 19. South Sudanese government
troops battled to regain control of a flashpoint town and sent forces to
quell fighting in a vital oil producing area on Thursday, the fifth day
of a conflict that that has deepended ethnic divisions in the
two-year-old nation. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters) #
Residents
of Juba arrive at the UN compound on Dec. 20 where they sought shelter.
African diplomats made a push for peace in South Sudan as bitter
fighting spread across the world's youngest nation, with US President
Barack Obama warning the oil-rich state was on the brink of civil war.
(Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images #
The
body of a dead rebel killed by South Sudan army soldiers during a
gunfight, lies on the ground near Bor Airport, 180km (108 miles)
northwest from capital Juba Dec. 25. South Sudanese troops have retaken
the flashpoint town of Bor in Jonglei state, a week after the town fell
to rebels loyal to rebel leader Riek Machar. (James Akena/Reuters) #
People
unload the few belongings on Jan. 9, at Minkammen, South Sudan that
they were able to bring with them to the camps. Hundreds of civilians
fleeing violence in Bor region arrive at dawn to one of the many small
ports that run alongside the camps in Awerial region, having crossed
over the Nile River by night. Thousands of exhausted civilians are
crowding into the fishing village of Minkammen, a once-tiny riverbank
settlement of a few thatch huts 25 kilometres (20 miles) southwest of
Bor. (Nichole Sobecki/AFP/Getty Images) #
A
monument for fallen peacekeepers stands amidst makeshift tents in a
spontaneous camp for internally displaced persons at the United Nations
Mission to South Sudan (UNMISS) base in Juba, on Jan. 9. Over 17,000
people are living at the base, with new arrivals every day, due to
ongoing conflict in the world's youngest nation. (Phil Moor/AFP/Getty
Images) #
A
girl sleeps as people go about their daily life in Minkammen, 25
kilometres (16 miles) south of Bor, on Jan. 8. An AFP reporter reached
the town and said the area was flooded with fleeing civilians and that
the rumble of heavy artillery fire could be heard in the distance. Some
80,000 displaced people from South Sudan's volatile Bor region have fled
to safety in sprawling, dusty camps in Awerial region across the Nile
River. (Nichole Sobecki/AFP/Getty Images) #
A
pirogue packed with passengers arrives at a dock after crossing a
waterway near the town of Malakal, seen from an airplane over South
Sudan, Dec. 30. When violence broke out in Juba on Dec. 15 life remained
calm but tense in Malakal, the capital of oil-producing Upper Nile
state, but the violence then radiated outward from Juba and full-fledged
war broke out in the town on Christmas Day, as army commanders defected
and pledged allegiance to the country's ousted vice president, in most
cases pitting the ethnic group of President Salva Kiir, a Dinka, against
ethnic Nuers. (Ben Curtis/Associated Press) #
A
displaced girl stands on her flip-flops on a sheet of sacking as she
tries to wash herself from a bottle of water filled from a nearby water
truck, on a muddy patch of ground in a United Nations compound which has
become home to thousands of people displaced by the recent fighting, in
the capital Juba, South Sudan, Dec. 29. (Ben Curtis/Associated Press) #
Three
children walk through a spontaneous camp for internally displaced
persons at the United Nations Mission to South Sudan (UNMISS) base in
Juba, on Jan. 9. Over 17,000 people are living at the base, with new
arrivals every day, due to ongoing conflict in the world's youngest
nation. (Phil Moore/AFP/Getty Images) #
South
Sudanese women jostle to get at the head of a queue for water being
distributed from a UN reservoir at the United Nations Mission in South
Sudan (UNMISS) compound where tension remains high fueling an exodus of
both local and foreign residents from the south Sudanese capital. (Tony
Karumba/AFP/Getty Images) #
A
man unloads food assistance supplied by the international Red Cross
which arrived in the morning by truck to help the thousands who fled the
recent fighting between government and rebel forces in Bor by boat
across the White Nile, in the town of Awerial, South Sudan, Jan. 2. (Ben
Curtis/Associated Press) #
A
small cross made of sticks and a religious blanket lie on top of the
grave of a small child who was wounded during recent fighting between
government and rebel forces in Bor but who died after fleeing by river
barge across the Nile river to the town of Awerial, South Sudan. (Ben
Curtis/Associated Press) #
Displaced
people who fled the recent fighting between government and rebel forces
in Bor, South Sudan prepare to sleep in the open at night in the town
of Awerial, South Sudan on Jan. 1. The International Red Cross said that
the road from Bor to the nearby Awerial area "is lined with thousands
of people" waiting for boats so they could cross the Nile River. (Ben
Curtis/Associated Press) #
