Kuwait city: United Nations agencies on Friday called for urgent international support for Sudan as more than 1.3 million internally displaced people begin returning to their places of origin, despite the ongoing conflict and widespread destruction. The agencies warned that return conditions remain perilous due to massive damage and the collapse of basic services.
According to Kuwait News Agency, in a joint press release from Geneva, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) confirmed that over one million internally displaced persons (IDPs) have started to return to the states of Khartoum, Sennar, and Al-Jazirah. Additionally, approximately 320,000 people have returned from neighboring countries, mainly Egypt and South Sudan.
IOM Regional Director Othman Belbeisi stressed the importance of supporting returnees, warning that returns are taking place in areas still devastated by war and the dangers posed by landmines and other remnants of war. For his part, UNHCR's Regional Refugee Coordinator for the Sudan crisis, Mamadou Dian Balde, cautioned that although some returns are occurring to relatively safer areas, many regions, particularly Darfur and Kordofan, continue to witness active hostilities.
UNDP Regional Director Abdallah Al-Dardari emphasized the urgent need to clear debris and restore water, electricity, and health services. Sudan currently hosts around ten million internally displaced people, including 7.7 million uprooted by the current conflict. It also shelters some 882,000 refugees and asylum seekers, mainly from South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea, according to the statement.
Since the start of the conflict, over 12 million people have been forcibly displaced, including more than four million who have fled to neighboring countries. The UN agencies underscored the severe shortfall in humanitarian funding. Only 23 percent of the USD 4.2 billion needed to support 21 million people in Sudan has been received, while just 16 percent of the USD 1.8 billion required to assist Sudanese refugees in seven neighboring countries has been secured.