Despite the ongoing conflict across Sudan, more than one million internally displaced people have returned home as "pockets of relative safety have emerged," UN agencies have said.
The number is alongside 320,000 others crossing back into the country from neighbouring Egypt and South Sudan since last year, the agencies said in a joint statement Friday.
Returns have mainly taken place in Khartoum, Sennar, and Al Jazirah States - regions devastated by more than two years of war, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said.
While fighting has eased in these areas, conditions remain dire. Power supply lines, roads and drainage systems have been completely destroyed, and schools and hospitals ruined or turned into collective shelters hosting displaced families, according to the statement.
‘Desire to return’
UNHCR and IOM regional directors recently visited Khartoum, where they found thousands of displaced people and refugees cut off from aid since the war began.
"More than evidence of people’s desire to return to their homeland, these returns are a desperate call for an end to the war," said Mamadou Dian Balde, the regional refugee coordinator for the Sudan crisis.
IOM Regional Director Othman Belbeisi, for his part, emphasized the need to support voluntary returns.
"Those heading home are not passive survivors, they are vital to Sudan's recovery… We must work alongside local partners to ensure that people return not to shattered systems, but to the foundations of peace, dignity, and opportunity," Belbeisi said.
‘Race against time’
UNDP's Abdallah Al Dardari added: "We are in a race against time to clear the rubble and provide water, power, and health care."
Humanitarian needs inside Sudan and in neighboring host countries remain unmet, with aid agencies receiving only 23% of the $4.2 billion needed for operations inside Sudan and just 16% of the $1.8 billion needed to support Sudanese refugees abroad.
Sudan still hosts nearly 882,000 refugees and counts more than 10 million internally displaced people, including 7.7 million uprooted by the current conflict. Meanwhile, hundreds continue to flee daily due to fighting in Darfur and Kordofan.
"The people of Sudan have suffered enough," the statement concluded, calling for a political solution to allow lasting peace and full recovery.
