Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni threatened the leader of South Sudan's rebel forces on Monday, warning that East African nations would unite to defeat the opposition fighters unless they agreed to a ceasefire.
Two weeks of clashes in the world's youngest nation have left at least 1,000 people dead and forced thousands to flee. More than 20,000 refugees have sought shelter in two U.N. bases in the South Sudanese capital, Juba. James Copnall reports for the BBC that concerns over food, water and hygiene in the makeshift camps are growing.
The photographs below, taken by Ben Curtis for the Associated Press at a U.N. compound, highlight the dire living conditions for the incoming refugees, many of them children.
A young displaced girl starts crying after the relative she was with disappears into a row of latrines, at a United Nations compound which has become home to thousands of people displaced by the recent fighting, in the capital Juba, South Sudan Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
A displaced child holds the tyre he was using as a toy as he navigates across a muddy patch of ground to go fill an empty bottle with water from a truck, at a United Nations compound which has become home to thousands of people displaced by the recent fighting, in the capital Juba, South Sudan, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
A displaced child struggles to carry a container of drinking water obtained from a truck across a slippery muddy patch of ground at a United Nations compound which has become home to thousands of people displaced by the recent fighting, in the capital Juba, South Sudan, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
A displaced boy mimics the photographer taking a picture of him, using a fake plastic jewel, at a United Nations compound which has become home to thousands of people displaced by the recent fighting, in the capital Juba, South Sudan Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
A displaced child stands in front of the makeshift tents where she and others live next to shipping containers at a United Nations compound which has become home to thousands of people displaced by the recent fighting, in the capital Juba, South Sudan Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
A young displaced girl peers out from her makeshift tent at a United Nations compound which has become home to thousands of people displaced by the recent fighting, in the capital Juba, South Sudan Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Displaced people gather around a water truck to fill containers at a United Nations compound which has become home to thousands of people displaced by the recent fighting, in the capital Juba, South Sudan Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
A displaced girl, left, asks a boy to retrieve her yellow flip-flop which came off as she was walking across a slippery muddy patch of ground next to a truck from which the displaced were filling up containers of water, at a United Nations compound which has become home to thousands of people displaced by the recent fighting, in the capital Juba, South Sudan Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Moveable stairs used for passengers to board aircraft are repurposed into makeshift shelters by the displaced at a United Nations compound which has become home to thousands of people displaced by the recent fighting, in the capital Juba, South Sudan Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)