More than 1.3 million people who fled the ongoing conflict in Sudan have returned home in recent months, the United Nations revealed on Friday. The returnees include over one million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and around 320,000 refugees who crossed back into the country, primarily from Egypt and South Sudan.
The UN agencies International Organization for Migration (IOM), UNHCR, and UNDP warned that despite “pockets of relative safety,” the situation remains precarious. Humanitarian efforts to support these returns are severely underfunded, they said in a joint statement, calling for urgent international financial assistance.
Sudan has been engulfed in violent conflict since April 2023, when a power struggle erupted between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. The brutal fighting has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 10 million people 7.7 million of them within Sudan and over 4 million into neighboring countries.
Othman Belbeisi, IOM’s regional director, emphasized that the crisis is the world’s largest ongoing humanitarian disaster yet remains “the least remembered.” Speaking from Port Sudan, he reported that 71% of returnees have gone to Al-Jazira state, with others returning to Khartoum and Sennar.
Despite the army regaining control over central, northern, and eastern regions, the RSF maintains a grip on Darfur in the west. Kordofan, in the south, has become the latest battleground. Belbeisi stressed that a sustainable return depends on restoring services and improving security, estimating that 2.1 million may return to Khartoum by year’s end.
UN officials painted a grim picture of returning conditions: destroyed infrastructure, damaged hospitals and schools, and a rising threat of cholera due to broken water systems. UNDP’s Luca Renda warned of massive contamination from unexploded ordnance, including anti-personnel mines, which could take years to clear.
“This is a living nightmare,” said Belbeisi. “The violence must stop. But we urgently need global support to help the people of Sudan rebuild their shattered lives.”
