Marriam Teia pointed to a bag of grain near the doorway of her home, a small inlet in the caves of the Nuba mountains.
"This is the last sack for the kids," she said.
When it runs out, she said, there will be nothing left.
Article Photos
Ryan Boyette
Marriam, along with an estimated 100,000 others, have fled their homes in the volatile border region of South Kordofan and sought shelter in the rocky folds of the nearby mountains.
Fighting between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLA-N) and the Sudan Armed Forces increases. The Sudan government continues scorched-earth tactics across South Kordofan forcing citizens of the region from their lands.
Abandoning farms, livestock and goods, their new home offers foul water, no crops and diminishing hope.
Fact Box
Editor's note: Ryan Boyette, formerly of Boca Grande, continues to monitor to civil war in Sudan at great personal peril. He sends information as he is able. The Gasparilla Gazette is publishing all communication from Boyette.
Our newest video, "A Hidden Hunger: Life in the Caves of the Nuba Mountains" exposes a population on the verge of starvation.
Eighty percent of households in the Nuba mountains survive on one meal per day, according to an evaluation by an independent NGO. That number is up from zero percent just two years prior and malnourishment among children is soaring.
In September, Dr. Raphael Veicht with German Emergency Doctors, noted a spike in severely malnourished children arriving at this clinic in the Nuba Mountains.
"I haven't seen any food aid recently," he said. "There's no aid from anyone, from any UN agency or any foreign government."
NGOs working in the region say the humanitarian crisis is the direct result of broken promises from the Sudan government. The Tripartite Humanitarian Agreement, signed Aug. 4 by the United Nations, African Union and League of Arab States, assured the release of food aid to South Kordofan.
Months later, relief remains nonexistent.
Khartoum denies it is withholding aid, but parties outside the government say otherwise.
Amor Almagro, a spokesperson for the World Food Programme, told the Bureau of Investigative Journalism earlier this month that, "access has not been granted for us to carry out an assessment and deliver much needed food assistance"
Frequent bombing by the Sudan government continues to threaten civilian safety. Thirty-three bombs fell in South Kordofan in October.
Attacks on the ground are also a concern for citizens as the SAF burns villages as part of its violent campaign against areas under Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North control.
For many, the journey to Yida refugee camp in South Sudan in a daunting choice. With more than 65,000 people inhabiting a camp intended for 15,000, living conditions are poor, food stocks low and the long walk there is dangerous.
Life in the mountains is not a solution for displaced people, however. Cave life is unsustainable, especially without land to harvest or hope for food aid. Violence surrounds the mountains but their home villages are destroyed or in too dangerous a region to which to return.
Marriam Teia said not only does she have no way to get to Yida, but its a place she's never been before - far from her home in Tess, a village recently burned by the SAF.
"I don't know where to put my heart," she said. "I'm in the middle. I want to go home."
Editor's note: Ryan Boyette, formerly of Boca Grande, continues to monitor to civil war in Sudan at great personal peril. He sends information as he is able. The Gasparilla Gazette is publishing all communication from Boyette.
