As violence continues to envelop South Sudan, nearly 200,000 people have been displaced from their homes by the fighting. The United Nations has established camps for displaced people, but conditions in Tomping camp, outside of the national capital Juba, are less than ideal.
The fighting began on Dec. 15, when soldiers in the presidential guard began fighting one another after President Salva Kiir fired Vice President Riek Machar. The two are from different ethnic groups with a long history of tension (Kiir is Dinka, the largest group in South Sudan, while Machar is Nuer, the second-largest group). The fighting quickly spread across the nation along ethnic lines, leading a largely-Nuer rebel group called the White Army to take up arms against Kiir and the government.
Violence has engulfed the majority of South Sudanese states, and more than 189,000 people have been displaced by the fighting. At least 1,000 have been killed. The United Nations has established bases providing food, shelter and other services to thousands of internally displaced people, but many remain outside of these bases. Still more have fled north to Sudan, from which South Sudan won its independence in 2011.
Displaced people carry water containers on their heads at Tomping camp near Juba, January 7, 2014. ReutersDisplaced people rest on the floor as they wait for medical attention at an emergency clinic run by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) at Tomping camp near Juba, where some 15,000 displaced people are sheltered by the U.N., January 7, 2014. ReutersDisplaced people walk around Tomping camp near Juba where they are heltered by the U.N., January 7, 2014. ReutersUnited Nations Mission in South Sudan personnel erect barbed wire fencing around Tomping camp, where people are sheltered by the U.N., near Juba, January 7, 2014. ReutersA displaced man speaks on a cellphone in his makeshift shelter at Tomping camp near Juba, January 7, 2014. ReutersA displaced mother carries her sick child at a U.N. hospital at Tomping camp near Juba, January 7, 2014. ReutersDisplaced people walk past razor wire at Tomping camp near Juba, January 7, 2014. ReutersU.N. police patrol at Tomping camp, where some 15,000 displaced people who fled their homes are sheltered by the U.N. near Juba, January 7, 2014. ReutersA displaced woman sits with her child as they wait for medical attention at an emergency clinic run by MSF at Tomping camp near Juba, January 7, 2014. ReutersA man prepares to pump water into a tank for use by displaced people at Tomping camp near Juba, Jan. 7, 2014. ReutersDisplaced people prepare their meals at Tomping camp near Juba, where some 15,000 displaced people who fled their homes are sheltered by the U.N., January 7, 2014. ReutersA displaced child plays on a mattress under a mosquito net laid in the open at Tomping camp near Juba, January 7, 2014. ReutersA displaced boy walks past U.N. police from Bangladesh who are on patrol at Tomping camp near Juba, January 7, 2014. ReutersA displaced mother watches over her sick child at a U.N. hospital at Tomping camp near Juba, January 7, 2014. ReutersA displaced man holds his child as they wait for medical attention at an emergency clinic run by MSF at Tomping camp near Juba, January 7, 2014. ReutersDisplaced people wash their clothes in a drainage canal at Tomping camp near Juba, January 7, 2014. ReutersDisplaced people wash their clothes in a drainage canal at Tomping camp near Juba, January 7, 2014. ReutersA displaced mother tends to her sick child at a U.N. hospital at Tomping camp near Juba January 7, 2014. Reuters
