The land between
A church still bears the scars of a Sudanese airstrike that took place a few years ago in Abyei, a disputed region between Sudan and South Sudan which has seen several clashes between their troops.
At the end of October, the area's permanent residents voted to join South Sudan in a symbolic referendum. The poll risks antagonising Arab nomads who drive their livestock through Abyei and are loyal to Sudan.
A United Nations helicopter flies over Abyei town, located in the disputed region of the same name. The United Nations has deployed a 5,000-strong, mainly Ethiopian peacekeeping force to monitor tensions between the nomads and residents in the area.
A woman waves to people arriving in Abyei town ahead of the referendum.
People sit in an abandoned house near a polling station that was set up in a school.
A woman dries laundry as she stands in an abandoned building in Abyei town.
Another woman prepares tea at a stall near a polling station.
A Dinka Ngok cattle herder walks through a cattle camp in the Abyei region.
Another Dinka Ngok herder strides through the camp.
Wrapped in a cloak, a man from the community stands surrounded by livestock.
A young Dinka Ngok herder strides past cattle.
A man from the group washes his hands in bull urine.
A woman prepares food in a cattle herders' camp near the town of Abyei.
A man folds his mosquito net near a polling station during the disputed referendum.
A boy washes his face as a woman sits inside a mosquito tent near a voting station.
A woman sits underneath the blue gauze of a mosquito net.
Women queue to cast their ballots at a polling station.
Two women wait to vote.
An elderly woman stands inside a polling station.
A woman hunches over to vote.
A woman casts her ballot.
An elderly man walks out of a polling station set up in a school.
A young man dances as he celebrates the unofficial referendum results.
