The following images are from a story about food aid in Souther Sudan. The nation of Sudan has been plagued by civil war since 1983. More than four million people have been displaced from their homes since the beginning of the war, and two million people have died as a result of the war. People in the south of Sudan began fighting the northern government of Sudan because of the north's invasion of lands to extract resources like oil and water, as well as to escape the oppression posed to them by the strict rules of Islamic Sharia law.

These images were taken in the villages of Mayandit, Narus, and Katamoto. Most of the pictures were taken in Mayandit, a village located in Leech country of the Western Upper Nile Provence in Souther Sudan. Mayandit is located in an area that has a large amount of oil underneath the surface. It is heavily fought over because the northern government uses the oil to fund its war agains the rebel southern army, the Sudanese People's Liberation Army.

People in Mayandit experience one of the worst droughts in the past ten years, meaning that they are completely reliant upon food aid from World Food Programme. Also due to heavy fighting in the area villagers from Mayandit experience regular bombings.

I photographed this story in January of 2003. At the time there was a ceasfire called between SPLA and the government of Sudan. However, in Western Upper Nile, souther Sudanese experienced fighting and bombings on a daily basis. According to villageres in Mayandit, the government of Sudan is trying to build a road to move drilled oil down the Nile to be shipped to Port of Sudan. SPLA knowing this oil will fund the GOS militias to further fight and pillage the southern territories, has launched an offensive against this road being built.

Innocent people have no means to produce food because of the insecurity posed to them by the fighting. Thus they are only able to feed themselves through emergency food aid, brought to them by World Food Programme.