Photos: Mysterious, majestic; Sudan’s Nuba Mountains

The skyline of the vast and rugged Nuba Mountains in Sudan, stretching across the south of the country’s South Kordofan region, is defined by rocky hills and scattered huts.

Constant war has put pressure on the region’s Nuba people for decades, as the government in Khartoum starved and bombed them for decades after the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), the rebel group in control, fought for autonomy in the mountains.

More recently, ethnic cleansing campaigns by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have further haunted the local population.

Then, at the start of this year, the SPLM-N picked a side in the war, allying with the RSF, a group accused of genocide, war crimes and ethnic cleansing, which has battled the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for control of the coun