A government soldier sits on the back of a pick-up truck in Bentiu, a South Sudanese town recently retaken from rebels by forces loyal to President Salva Kiir.
Weeks of fighting, often along ethnic lines, have torn through South Sudan, bringing the world's youngest nation close to civil war.
30 Dec 2013 . MALAKAL, South Sudan. REUTERS/James Akena
The conflict has pitted President Salva Kiir's SPLA government forces, like those pictured above, against rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar.
Kiir has accused Machar, a long-term political rival whom he sacked in July, of starting the clashes in a bid to seize power. Machar has accused Kiir of purging political opponents within the ruling SPLM party ahead of elections next year.
Fighting that broke out in December quickly followed ethnic lines - Kiir is from the dominant Dinka tribe, while Machar is a Nuer.
19 Dec 2013 . JUBA, South Sudan. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic
The fighting has been the worst in South Sudan since it won independence from Sudan in 2011 in a peace deal that ended one of Africa's longest civil wars.
An estimated 230,000 people have been displaced and over 1,000 killed over the course of the conflict, with many hunkering down in UN compounds.