

Photojournalist Mackenzie Knowles-Coursin accompanied Foreign Policy contributor James Verini into the battlegrounds of the Nuba Mountains, where the Sudan People's Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N) is fighting the government of Khartoum for a measure of autonomy from the Arab north. In this decade-long struggle -- seemingly the latest in Sudan's tortured history -- it is, as always, the civilians who pay the greatest price. In the border region of South Kordofan, an SPLA-N general tells Verini, "the front line is everywhere."
Above, women carry water back to their homes as the sun rises over Yida Refugee Camp, just across the border in South Sudan. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is preparing for the possibility of a new influx of refugees from South Kordofan in the coming months as people flee increased fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and SPLA-N. Dwindling food reserves have made the humanitarian situation even more acute.


















