CAIRO — Sudanese refugees have recently flocked to train stations in Cairo, beginning a wave of return to their home country after the government forces’ recent victories in its 18-month war against the notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here.
The “voluntary” return is in contrast to the experience of other Sudanese who have been forced to leave Egypt due to their dire economic conditions and lack of documents from the United Nations refugee agency.
Those returns earlier this year happened although fighting still raged between the military and the RSF in multiple parts of the country. However, the military has reportedly reclaimed parts of the capital, Khartoum and its sister cities of Omdurman and Bahri (Khartoum North) over the past two months. The military has cleared many neighborhoods from RSF fighters who had occupied residents’ homes.
The war in Sudan started in April 2023 when simmering tensions between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in Khartoum and elsewhere in the country. The war has been marked with atrocities, including rape and ethnic motivated killings which the UN says amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The war has killed more than 20,000 people, and created the world’s largest displacement crisis, according to the United Nations. More than 3 million people fled to neighboring countries, with Egypt the largest host country with 1.2 million refugees arriving in the country since the start of the war, according to the Egyptian government.
Top UN officials, including Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, have reiterated that violence is still rampant in pockets of the northeastern African country. More than 130,000 people have been forced to flee their home towns and villages in the east-central Gezira province since late October amid brutal attacks by the RSF, according to the UN migration agency.
The RSF, which grew out of the infamous Janjaweed militias, rampaged through the province of Gezira last month, attacking towns and villages. Hundreds of people have been killed in atrocities that also included rape, looting and mass displacement, according to doctors and the United Nations.
Life returns
The military advances encouraged Amira Ahmed, who fled to Egypt at the start of the war, to take the decision and return home. The 35-year-old mother took her 15-year-old son and headed back to Sudan on Oct. 24. Her family, who are still in Sudan, had repeatedly urged her to return.
“They told me that life has returned to Sudan,” she said in WhatsApp messages upon her arrival in the city of Atbara, 310 kilometers (193 miles) north of Khartoum.
It’s not clear how many have refugees have returned to Sudan. A diplomat at the Sudanese embassy in Cairo said there were many initiatives that facilitate the voluntary return of Sudanese to their country. The diplomat, who asked not to be named, said many Sudanese who had sought asylum and submitted their applications at the UNHCR office in Cairo, closed their files and applied for travel documents at the embassy in the Egyptian capital.
The latest military victories have encouraged many to return.
Mohamed Sulaiman, founder of the “Returning to the County of Good People” initiative, said many Sudanese prefer to return in groups.
“Each family searches for a similar family to accompany them to the province to which they are returning,” he said.
Sulaiman’s initiative and another group, “Return to Sudan”, have coordinated weekly trips for dozens of families since June. Each trip includes between 90 and 200 people from Cairo.
Ali Mostafa, supervisor of the “Return to Sudan” initiative, estimated that up to 15,000 Sudanese have returned to Sudan since June, including several hundred his initiative helped this month.
Sulaiman said the latest military victories have encouraged many to return, adding: “We used to organize one trip a week, now we organize three … people now organize themselves without our help.”
“Everyone was happy”
Lawhaz Osman, a Sudanese woman, followed Amira Ahmed steps, and returned to Sudan on Oct. 24.
“Two days after I consulted my cousins, we decided to return with the first return trip,” she said. “We prepared the bag, bought enough food for the road and the first period in Sudan until we settled down.”
The 28-year-old woman sold some of the furniture and household appliances, and donated the rest to needy families. As for the small appliances such as the kitchen mixer and the iron, “we took them,” she said.
Anxious, Lawahez arrived at Cairo’s main railway station, Misr Station, two hours earlier before her train. The train left the station at 8:30 p.m. that day, 10 minutes late. It was night and they were excited.
“No one slept, neither young nor old, everyone was happy,” he said.
Welcome back!
In Sudan, local communities are welcoming the returnees, serving them food through initiatives known as “Takaya,” said Saad Siraj, who coordinates aid groups in southern Khartoum. He said organizers plan to increase the number of Takayas to 80, up from 30 to cover the growing needs in southern Khartoum due to the new arrivals.
I had expected to find the country in very bad shape.
Amira Ahmed’s husband decided to stay in Cairo where he works, and sends money to the family. His wife didn’t head to her home in Gezira, choosing instead to rent an apartment either in Port Sudan where his displaced sister is, or in Atbara where her displaced brother went.
Omar Qarib Allah, who arrived in Sudan in mid-October along with his wife and children, was fortunate. He returned directly to his home in Omdurman which he described as “safe” even with the sporadic and indiscriminate shelling by the RSF. He estimated that “99% of the shelling lands in empty spaces and uninhabited houses.”
“I had expected to find the country in very bad shape,” he said. “But when I returned, I found electricity and water levels at 98%. Communications are only cut off if there is a fault or an area is liberated and they (authorities) want to fix the network there.”
