More than 1.3 million people uprooted inside Sudan have returned to their communities despite an active war, while some 320,000 others have crossed back from Egypt and South Sudan since 2024, three UN agencies said Friday, calling it a “race against time” to restore basic services.
Returns are concentrated in Khartoum, Sennar and Al Jazirah — states ravaged by over two years of fighting — where electricity grids, roads and drainage are wrecked, schools and hospitals lie in ruins or serve as makeshift shelters, and threats from sexual violence to unexploded ordnance persist, the UNHCR, IOM and UNDP said in a joint statement.
“These movements are less a vote of confidence than a desperate plea to end the war,” said Mamadou Dian Baldé, the UNHCR regional refugee coordinator for the Sudan crisis, after a visit to Khartoum where aid has barely reached since hostilities began.
IOM Regional Director Othman Belbeisi stressed support for voluntary returnees: “They are not passive survivors; they are central to Sudan’s recovery. We must help them rebuild on foundations of peace, dignity and opportunity.”
UNDP’s Abdallah Al Dardari warned that agencies are “racing the clock” to clear rubble and restore water, power and health care.
Funding is lagging badly: only 23% of the $4.2 billion required for operations inside Sudan and 16% of the $1.8 billion needed for refugees abroad has been received, the agencies said.
Sudan still hosts nearly 882,000 refugees and counts over 10 million internally displaced, including 7.7 million forced from their homes since the current war erupted. Hundreds continue to flee daily as clashes grind on in Darfur and Kordofan.
“The people of Sudan have suffered enough,” the statement concluded, urging a political settlement to secure lasting peace and recovery.
