May 10, 2013 — International Rescue Committee teams in Chad are gearing up to assist thousands of people who have crossed into the southeast of the country to escape renewed fighting in Darfur, Sudan.

Escalating violence in Darfur forced this woman and her child to find shelter at a camp near El Fasher in North Darfur. Some 2.7 million people have been displaced during ten years of conclict.

Photo: Peter Biro/IRC

During ten years of conflict in Darfur, Sudan, it is estimated that 300,000 people have died and some 2.7 million have been displaced. Although the worst violence has declined since the conflict’s peak years of 2003 to 2005, fighting still flares up and several rounds of peace talks between rebels and the Sudanese government have failed. Even as some displaced people have returned to their villages, militia raids, aerial bombardment and tribal fighting have driven an estimated 100,000 more people from their homes in the last year, according to the United Nations.

The International Rescue Committee is responding to the worst cholera outbreak to hit Chad in over a decade.  More than 15,000 cases of the water-borne disease have been reported since January 2011.