IN a desperate gamble for normalcy, more than one million internally displaced Sudanese have begun the perilous journey home to war-torn regions where basic survival remains uncertain, international officials revealed this week.
The mass return movement, driven by emerging pockets of relative safety after 27 months of brutal conflict, represents both hope and crisis for a nation grappling with the world’s largest displacement emergency. Since April 2023, more than 12 million people — equivalent to the entire population of Chile — have been forced from their homes.
“The majority of returns has been to Al-Jazirah, almost 71 percent, and then 13 percent to Sennar,” said Othman Belbeisi, Regional Director for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), speaking from Port Sudan. An additional 320,000 cross-border refugees have returned from Egypt and South Sudan to assess conditions.
The returnees face a landscape of devastation. In Khartoum, where Sudan’s military reclaimed control from Rapid Support Forces in May, unexploded ordnance litters the streets. UN officials discovered “hundreds of unexploded ordnances” in their own offices, highlighting the deadly minefield awaiting civilians.
“There are hundreds of thousands, if not more, of unexploded ordnance in the city,” warned Luca Renda, Sudan’s UN Development Programme Representative. Full decontamination will require years and at least $10 million just for initial demining operations.
The humanitarian infrastructure lies in ruins. Some 1,700 water wells need rehabilitation, six hospitals require urgent repair, and primary health centres remain shuttered. The race against time intensifies as aid workers struggle to prevent cholera outbreaks and restore basic services before more families arrive.
During a recent UN visit to Khartoum, an elderly resident encapsulated the community’s needs in stark terms: “Food, water, healthcare — and education, since this is the future of our children.”
The returns occur against a backdrop of severe funding shortfalls that threaten the entire humanitarian response. As of July 21, aid agencies have received only 23 percent of the $4.2 billion required to assist nearly 21 million vulnerable people inside Sudan. For the 4.8 million refugees in neighbouring countries, the situation is even more dire — only 17 percent of the needed $1.8 billion has materialised.
“People who are refugees still need greater support from our side,” said Mamadou Dian Balde, UNHCR Regional Refugee Coordinator. “And overall, we need peace, we need peace, we need peace, so that this brutal conflict ends.”
The mixed signals of return and continued flight underscore Sudan’s complex crisis. While families stream back to Al-Jazirah and Khartoum, hundreds continue fleeing daily from the Darfur and Kordofan regions, where violence persists. The Darfurs alone have produced over 800,000 refugees since fighting began.
IOM projects 2.1 million people may attempt to return to Khartoum by year’s end, but officials caution that security conditions and service restoration will determine whether these homecomings represent genuine recovery or another humanitarian disaster in the making.
The conflict has pushed parts of Sudan into famine, transforming what was once a regional breadbasket into a nation dependent on international aid. As families make the calculated risk to return home, the international community faces urgent questions about whether adequate support will follow them back to their devastated communities.
With winter approaching and funding gaps widening, Sudan’s crisis threatens to deepen just as its most vulnerable citizens attempt their most dangerous journey yet — the journey home.
