18 Striking Images Of Life In A South Sudanese Refugee Camp

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.