Over 5 million displaced Sudanese return home: UN

More than five million displaced people have opted to return to their areas of origin in Sudan despite ongoing civil war and stark challenges, the United Nations said on Monday.

"Many are going back to a country still wracked by conflict, where damaged homes, schools and clinics cannot meet the needs," the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement.

"Without urgent support, families risk being uprooted again."

The war between Sudan's regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that erupted in

April 2023 has killed more than 200,000 people, aid workers estimate, and created the world's largest hunger and displacement crisis.

IOM has previously said that the war at its height displaced around 12 million people inside the country, while the UN refugee agency says nearly five million fled into neighbouring countries.

But with the war moving on from Khartoum since the military retook it last year, many of those displaced by the fighting have begun returning home to the capital and other areas where they believe security has improved.

IOM said on Monday fresh data indicated that 5.15 million people had returned to 76 localities across nine Sudanese states - up four percent from a month ago.

Another 8.58 million people remain displaced across the country, it said, pointing out that this was down one percent from last month and about a quarter lower than at the peak of the crisis.
Despite the decline, "Sudan still hosts one of the largest displaced populations in the world", the agency stressed.

And ongoing insecurity was continuing to force more people to flee their homes in parts of Darfur, Kordofan and Blue Nile, it said.

The IOM nevertheless welcomed the fact that the number of returnees had passed the five-million mark, seeing this as "a rare sign of progress in a prolonged humanitarian crisis."

"But getting home is only the start," IOM chief Amy Pope stressed.

"If we don't help them now, many will be forced to move again. We need to invest in these communities today so people can rebuild their lives and stay."

A full 82 per cent of the returnees had been displaced inside Sudan, while around 930,000 of them had returned from abroad, mainly from Egypt, South Sudan and Libya, IOM said.

Half of all returnees are under the age of 18, it added.
Agence France-Presse