Sudanese refugees are flooding back to the capital amid war

The UN’s International Organization for Migration stated on August 26th that half a million people have returned to the capital city of Sudan over July of 2025, according to the New Arab plus agencies.

The estimated 500,074 people who returned to the capital Khartoum in July is an enormous 400% increase of the figures of those who returned in the previous month of June.

Overall, over the last 9 months around 2 million people have returned to their homes across Sudan. Of this figure over half returned to the state Al-Jazira, whilst over 600,000 have returned to Khartoum.

Sudan broke out into a violent civil war in April of 2023 between the Sudanese military and the paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces.

So far the war has displaced millions, including around 4 million specifically from the capital Khartoum, roughly half of which the UN predicts will return by the end of 2025.

Those who have had to flee their homes now either live in displacement camps or have had to flee into neighbouring countries- since the beginning of the war at least 313,000 Sudanese people have entered Libya, a figure which the UN expects will rise to 650,000 by the end of 2025.

The sharp spike in returns to Khartoum comes 4 months after the Sudanese army recaptured the capital city from the Rapid Support Forces.

The Sudanese army regaining control of the city has allowed reconstruction efforts to begin, however the fight to recapture Khartoum caused some significant infrastructure damage– ministry buildings are destroyed, the presidential palace is damaged, and water and electrical facilities were decimated.

Schools in Khartoum have either been destroyed or turned into shelters, and health facilities are under strain.

The UN has stated that restoring basic infrastructure in the city will cost no less than $350 million and it will take many years for Khartoum to make a full recovery.

New Arab plus agencies/Maghrebi