The series contains thorough information about many species of trees, their habitats, and the optimum times to seek them. It also explains how to identify them in the field. This includes a detailed list of unique features or identifying certain species based on their leaves, bark, and branches, ranging from high-lying grasslands and scrubby Karoo plains to the Drakensberg and Eastern Cape Mountain ranges, making it easy for readers to locate what they're looking for. Many spectacular indigenous trees across South Africa's different natural settings may be found. Sappi Tree Spotting is an excellent method to discover new species and revisit old The BBC has been privileged to cover the civil war in Sudan, where civilians have reported rape, ethnic violence, and street executions. The conflict has plunged the country into one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history and could trigger the world's largest hunger crisis. There are also fears that a repeat of what the US called genocide 20 years ago may be beginning to unfold in Darfur, in the west of the country.
In mid-February, the Sudanese army retook Omdurman, one of three along the River Nile that form Sudan's broader capital, Khartoum. Civilians have now started to return, but mortars continue to fall daily. For international media, gaining access to cover the civil war that erupted last April has been difficult, but the BBC has managed to reach the front line.
The vicious power struggle between the country's military and its former ally, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group, has killed at least 14,000 people across the country. The army and the RSF have battled over Khartoum and the nearby cities for nearly a year. The RSF has taken control of areas south of the capital, as well as large swathes of Darfur, which has been in turmoil for years with violence between its various African and Arab communities.
Women who escaped Darfur to neighbouring Chad have given the BBC accounts of being raped, sometimes multiple times, by militiamen. Men in the camps told us they had escaped street executions and abductions. Embedded on the front line with the army in Omdurman, the BBC team's movements were carefully controlled, as the military feared information about its activities would be leaked.
Despite the army's recent gain in Omdurman, we can still hear exchanges of fire crackling around the area from time to time. Part of the front line now runs along the Nile, separating Khartoum on the eastern side from Omdurman, west of the river. The military tells us RSF snipers are stationed in apartment blocks across the water from Sudanese army positions at the badly damaged parliament building.
Over three million people have fled Khartoum State in the past 11 months, but some Omdurman residents have refused to leave. Most of them are elderly. The Sudanese military has been criticised for its heavy use of aerial bombing, including in civilian areas where RSF fighters hide out.
People in Sudan hold both sides responsible for the destruction in and around the capital, but many accuse the RSF of looting and attacks during the time it controlled the area. Victims of rape face a lifetime of stigma and marginalisation from their own families and communities. Many people in Omdurman did not want to discuss the issue. Still, more than 1,000km (621 miles) to the west, in the sprawling refugee camps over the border in Chad, the volume of emerging testimonies of sexual violence is forcing a new, grim level of openness.
Amina, a 19-year-old refugee from Darfur in Sudan, has come to a temporary clinic run by the charity Médecins Sans Frontières seeking an abortion. She only found out she was pregnant the previous day and desperately hopes her family will never know. In November, militiamen caught Amina, along with her aunt and cousins, as they were fleeing from their hometown of Ardamata to the nearby city of Geneina. The RSF's expanding domination in Darfur, supported by allied Arab militias, has brought with it a surge in ethnically driven attacks on the black African population, especially the Masalit ethnic group.
A recent UN report seen by the BBC says that more than 10,000 people are believed to have been killed in the area since last April. The UN has documented about 120 victims of conflict-related sexual violence across the country, which it says is "a vast under-representation of the reality". It says men in RSF uniform and armed men affiliated with the group were reported to be responsible for more than 80% of the attacks. Separately, there have also been some reports of sexual assaults by the Sudanese military.
Just outside the same camp in the border town of Adré, about 30 women and girls meet in a hut at midday. Pink and blue balloons hang from a string above their heads, along with handwritten notes. "Rape is not destiny; it is a practice that can be stopped," one reads.
Maryamu, not her real name, says she was raped by armed men wearing the turban-style headdresses typical of Arab fighters in the area in November in her home in Geneina. She had difficulty walking afterwards, sobbing as she describes fleeing: "People were running, but we couldn't because my grandmother can't run. I was also bleeding."
Zahra Khamis, a social worker who is a refugee herself, runs the group. Both Amina and Maryamu are from black African communities, and Ms Khamis says these, particularly the Masalit ethnic group, are being targeted in Darfur.
During the war in Darfur 20 years ago, an Arab militia called the Janjaweed - in which the RSF has its roots - was mobilised by former President Omar al-Bashir to crush a rebellion by non-Arab ethnic groups. The UN says 300,000 people were killed, and rape was widely used as a way to terrorise black African communities and force them to flee. The ICC has indicted some Janjaweed leaders and Mr Bashir on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. They have denied the charges, and no one has been convicted.
In response to the BBC's questions about rapes and other attacks, the RSF said Sudanese military intelligence was "recruiting people to wear RSF clothes and commit crimes against civilians so it can be said that RSF are committing crimes, sexual assault and ethnic cleansing". Last year, the RSF said it would set up a process to investigate alleged human rights abuses by its forces, but the UN says no details have been given.
Aid agencies, including the UN's Unicef, warn of a humanitarian crisis in Sudan, with some communities on the brink of famine. Three-year-old Manasek is one of hundreds of thousands suffering from severe malnutrition, and her mother Ikram is cradling her in a hospital in Port Sudan, a city on the Red Sea where thousands of people fleeing the fighting in Khartoum have sought refuge. Sudan has a history of instability, with the military toppling long-time leader Omar al-Bashir in 2019 and overthrowing a power-sharing government in 2021. The RSF leader claims to represent marginalised groups against the country's elites, but his forces were accused of ethnic cleansing.
Manasek's mother, Zabiada Ammar Muhammad, has leukaemia and has been in pain since April when her medication ran out. Her husband volunteered to fight with the Sudanese military, and she has not heard from him for two months. Her mother, grandmother, and three children staying with them can only watch her health deteriorate.
In Port Sudan, a group of Coptic Christians have fled the capital to escape RSF threats and attacks, as well as the military's air strikes. The US claims both sides have committed war crimes, and the RSF and its allied militias have also committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. Both sides deny the allegations.
Eleven months into the war, there is little sign of any will to end the fighting. Most of those able to leave have fled the country, and as conflict, hunger, and disease continue, many people wonder what will be left for anyone to declare victory over the conflict.
