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In 2006 and 2007, several outbursts of violence caused the displacement of tens of thousands of people in eastern Chad. The populations are today still having to cope with the consequences of chronic insecurity and violence in local areas, particularly in the areas on the border with Sudan. Whereas humanitarian and development organizations operating in the region are few and far between, the ICRC is continuing its operations there to assist displaced people, the war-wounded and prisoners as well as the most vulnerable members of the local populations.

As part of its mandate, the ICRC works to reunite family members separated by conflict. In North Kivu, as in most war-torn areas, this often involves registering unaccompanied children and advising distraught parents.

Seven years after the end of the conflict that devastated Angola, the ICRC is scaling back its activities there. In July 2009 it will close its delegation in Luanda, but will continue to monitor the situation in Angola from its delegation in neighbouring South Africa. ICRC staff who worked in war-torn Angola as far back as 1975 share their memories.

More than 1.2 million people have fled the fighting in North Kivu since the end of 2007. As security improves in a number of regions some of these displaced persons are starting to return home, but many of them are still staying with host families. Others survive in makeshift, overcrowded camps. Life is touch and go for the displaced, who are short of everything. The ICRC and the Red Cross Society of the DRC are providing them with food and drinking water. The two organizations are also supporting hospitals and health centres in the areas concerned and are trying to reunite families who have been wrenched apart by the conflict.

A cholera epidemic struck Zimbabwe around August 2008. By December over 1,000 had succumbed to it. Today the death toll has trebled.

The Central African Republic (CAR) has suffered war and insecurity for the last 40 years. The ICRC is one of the few agencies operating throughout the country, including the remote northern villages. The organization works with detainees, promotes international humanitarian law and assists the tens of thousands affected by the situation.

Years of economic and political strife have taken a severe toll on the people of Zimbabwe, particularly those living rural areas. The ICRC is providing the most vulnerable with food and household items, and helping improve access to water and health care facilities.

The ICRC has extended its support to 32 Somali Red Crescent clinics in central and southern Somalia, which have treated over 140,000 patients and provided more than 60,000 vaccinations since January 2008. The organization also continues to support the two surgical referral hospitals in Mogadishu, Medina and Keysaney.

Angola has thousands of victims of land mines, a legacy of war. Recently the ICRC handed to the authorities its physical rehabilitation programme, which has assisted victims for nearly three decades.

They are forced to travel huge distances, often on foot, to seek safe refuge from the fighting – these are the displaced populations of Africa. The following collection provides a glimpse of the many places in Africa where people are forced to leave their homes.

In Chad, sporadic clashes between armed opposition groups and the army continue following the failed offensive on the capital, N'djamena in early February. As bad as this may be, intercommunity clashes in the east have most impact on cilvilians - particularly in the region of Dar Sila and parts of northern Assoungha. No security forces are present to stop the fighting and banditry and lawlessness regularly limit the scale of humanitarian efforts.

Zimbabweans are facing extremely hard economic times resulting in the highest inflation rate in the world, a situation which is putting added pressure on the country's already weakened healthcare system. The ICRC is supporting 16 rural health structures in three districts.

The ICRC is the only humanitarian organization with a large-scale operation in Gereida camp in South Darfur, where it continues to provide for the basic needs of over 120,000 displaced people. This gallery presents the latest in a series of images illustrating the organization's activities throughout Darfur, providing for basic needs, health services, war wounded surgery, water and agricultural support.

In a country ravaged by more than 15 years of armed conflict and natural disasters, the light at the end of the tunnel still seems a long way off. A series of images that show the faces behind the conflict, and what the ICRC is doing to bring relief to its victims.

Thousands of people in north western Central African Republic abandoned their homes and took refuge in the forest when fighting between government forces and armed rebels broke out in 2006. The ICRC is providing essential household items to over 13,000 families living a precarious existence between stability and flight.

It is estimated that the decade-long conflict in Uganda has forced over 1.7 million people from their homes into camps for the displaced. In February-March 2007, the ICRC distributed substantial aid to some 560,000 displaced people currently living in camps, returning to their homes or resettling after years of displacement.

The ICRC and the Nigerian Red Cross work together on a range of activities which include helping those affected by violence, immunizing children against disease and improving conditions in detention facilities.

Photos illustrating ICRC activities in Somalia. The media is welcome to use these images, which can be downloaded at high resolution.

Somalis living along the Shabele and Juba rivers, who have already suffered from a dreadful drought and whose very existence is jeopardized by the ongoing armed violence, now have to contend with the worst floods the country has experienced in recent years.

This gallery contains images and excerpts from a new ICRC photo exhibition that provides a fresh look at the humanitarian situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It depicts the central human concerns arising out of years of violence in which hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives, focusing on key issues such as child soldiers, sexual violence, health, water, economic security, helping abandoned communities, reuniting families and 'fighting right', and provides an overview of what the ICRC is doing to tackle these challenges.

Since the end of 2004, many Liberians have begun to return to homes they fled at the height of the fighting. This collection of photos shows how the ICRC is supporting returnees and residents to pick up the pieces of their interrupted lives.

A selection of photographs focusing on the situation in Somalia and ICRC activities on behalf of those affected by drought and conflict. They may be downloaded for use by the media.

After two decades of fighting between the Ugandan authorities and the Lords Resistance Army there remains little sign of a peaceful solution. In response to the deteriorating humanitarian situation, the ICRC resumed its field activities in 2004, suspended three years earlier after the killing of six staff members in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The ICRC helps the people most severely affected by the conflict in Casamance to return to a normal life. Access to health care and safe drinking water are priorities.

The ICRC delegation in Côte d’Ivoire has taken the original step of asking street children in Abidjan, under the supervision of the Red Cross Society of Côte d’Ivoire, to produce illustrations relating to the basic rules of humanitarian law. The best drawings were published in a calendar.

Between April and July 1994 the population of Rwanda experienced a nightmare; hundreds of thousands failed to survive it. Selection of photographs by Claude Gluntz of the Swiss magazine L'Illustré, Thierry Gassmann, Josué Anselmo and Patrick Fuller of the ICRC.