Women carry water through a baobab forest outside Tanfona, Blue Nile state, Sudan.
Yida refugee camp in northern South Sudan, home to more than 55,000 Nuba people mostly from across the border in Sudan's South Kordofan state. South Kordofan and sister state Blue Nile are often dubbed the Two Areas, both at war with the Sudanese government since 2011.
The United Nations aims to reduce the size of Yida camp and has been transferring Nuba refugees to separate sites tens of kilometres away for the last two years. The UN says Yida is militarised and a recruitment hub for the SPLA-North rebellion.
Nuba refugees shelter on the banks of the river in Upper Nile state, South Sudan. Here they are celebrating the marriage of relatives who are still back home in South Kordofan.
Civilians displaced from Angartu after a battle between SPLA-North rebels and the Sudanese Armed Forces. Sudan's government forbids the UN, aid agencies and journalists from entering South Kordofan and Blue Nile. Any aid that comes in must do so in secret.
Outside rebel stronghold Kauda an Antonov plane sent by Khartoum drops barrel bombs at random along the dirt road. Civilians run for cover on a rocky outcrop. The Antonov bombers frequently target signs of civilian life across South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
A fighter with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army-North. He wears the uniform of the national army of South Sudan, despite South Kordofan remaining part of Sudan when the country separated.
Empty bullet casings litter the ground after a recent battle in Angartu, South Kordofan, Sudan. The rebel SPLA-North claimed to have pushed out the Sudanese Armed Forces. Territory regularly goes back and forth between the fighting factions.
Unspent ammunition lies in the dirt of the destroyed village of Angartu, South Kordofan, early 2015. Civilians were cleared out into the bush by SPLA-North ahead of the battle.
Children play in the gutted and bombed-out compound of a clinic in rebel-held Blue Nile state, Sudan. Almost all civilians in the southern swath of Blue Nile the remains under the control of SPLA-North have evacuated over the border to refugee camps in South Sudan. A few civilians remain but aerial bombings are frequent and infrastructure non-existent.
An artisanal miner digs for gold down a pit near Yabus, southern Blue Nile state. Farming is considered too dangerous an activity because Antonov bomber planes can spot and target crops and livestock from the air. Informal mining is a way for civilians to earn a tiny income and not be entirely dependent on aid handouts.
Men and women toil for days on end down treacherous hand-dug pits looking for gold in rebel-held Blue Nile state. They then sell the gold onto traders in South Sudan and Ethiopia.
Mustafa Nimir is a trader from Blue Nile. He claims to have one of the only vehicles that can manage this terrain. He buys gum Arabic harvested in Blue Nile and sells it in South Sudan, then buys basic supplies in the refugee camps to bring back into Blue Nile and sell to the few civilian communities still living in the territory.
Sudan People's Liberation Army-North, the northern remnants of southern Sudan's independence struggle. An exhausted force, fed with young, ill-equipped trainees recruited from the refugee camps.
New rebel recruits perform during a 'graduation ceremony' at Blue Nile's Tanfona barracks. They often expect to be deployed on operations without their own weapons, instructed instead to scavenge from the enemy.
Kafe the hyena. Captured by a man called Ahmed when she was a pup and tethered ever since in a rakuba hut outside Ahmed's home in Blue Nile state. He claims to be keeping until the war ends whereupon he hopes to sell her.
SPLA-North rebel soldiers return from an operation beyond the front line in Blue Nile state. They carry what they call a land mine detector. Fighting between SPLA-North and Sudan's Armed Forces expanded in 2016 into the central Ingessana Hills, displacing tens of thousands of civilians to refugee camps indefinitely.
Antonov war planes sent by Sudan's government to South Kordofan and Blue Nile frequently drop bombs that do not explode. Civilians are regularly injured and killed and there is little knowledge among ordinary people about how to safely deal with and destroy unexploded ordnance.