Sudan attacked South Sudan with airstrikes and ground troops on April 23, days after South Sudanese forces retreated from a Heglig, a disputed oil-rich region South Sudan had captured from Sudan's military earlier in the month. The attacks went far beyond Heglig, as Sudan's forces bombed as far as the South Sudanese town of Bentiu, a regional capital. The fighting has stirred fears of all-out war between the Sudan and South Sudan, which became an independent nation only last year.
A policeman walked past the smouldering remains of a market in Rubkona near Bentiu in South Sudan on April 23.