A cholera outbreak has occurred in Sudan in recent weeks, killing nearly two dozen people and sickening hundreds more, health authorities said on Sunday.

Health Minister Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim said at a press conference in Port Sudan on Saturday that at least 34 people had died from the disease and that more than 300 confirmed cases of cholera had been registered across the country.

Ibrahim did not give a time period for the number of deaths nor the total number since the beginning of the year.

However, the World Health Organization said there had been 78 deaths from cholera in Sudan this year up to July 28. More than 2,400 more people had contracted the disease between January 1 and July 28, it said.

Cholera is a rapidly developing, highly contagious infectious disease that causes diarrhea that, if left untreated, leads to severe dehydration and possibly death within hours, according to the WHO. The disease is transmitted by ingesting contaminated food or water.

The cholera outbreak is the latest disaster for Sudan, which was plunged into chaos in April last year when simmering tensions between the military and a powerful paramilitary group spilled over into open war across the country.

The conflict has turned the capital Khartoum and other urban areas into battlefields and destroyed both civilian infrastructure and the already fragile health system. Due to a lack of basic services, many hospitals and medical facilities have had to close.

Thousands of people have died and many have been driven to death by starvation; famine has already been confirmed in a huge camp for displaced people in the devastated northern region of Darfur.

The conflict in Sudan has led to the world’s largest refugee crisis. According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 10.7 million people have had to leave their homes since the fighting began. More than two million of them fled to neighboring countries.