Egypt offers free trains for Sudanese refugees returning home
The Egyptian government has launched a campaign to provide a free train service for Sudanese refugees to return to Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, according to Africanews on July 21st.
The campaign launched on July 21st, where television coverage showed hundreds of Sudanese queuing to board train 1940 from Cairo to Aswan, where passengers would continue to Sudan via the Aswan High Dam Port.
The free train service follows calls made earlier in 2025 by the Sudanese military, which regained control of the capital Khartoum from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in March, for displaced citizens to return home. The service is part of a broader project to aid Sudanese citizens who fled their home country into Egypt to escape Sudan’s civil war, which erupted in April 2023 as part of a power struggle between the military and the RSF.
The same train will transport regular passengers back to Cairo every Tuesday before heading back to Aswan with more refugees every Sunday, according to The National on July 21st.
Egypt’s railway authority said that the train is operating to facilitate an efficient way through which Sudanese refugees can be returned to their homeland.
However, the free train service offered by Egypt represents only a drop in the ocean regarding the multilateral efforts it would take to rectify what the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) labelled as the “largest and most devastating displacement crisis in the world.”
Despite this, in late April 2025, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reported a sharp 44 percent rise in the number of Sudanese refugees returning home, all in the space of three weeks.
It is estimated by the Egyptian government that over 1.5 million Sudanese have crossed the border into Egypt since the beginning of the civil war, making it the nation which hosts the largest number of Sudanese refugees, according to AP news on July 22nd. The initiative was likely launched to alleviate the economic pressures that Egypt is facing. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has previously warned that the vast amount of refugees in the country is stretching the already sparse resources and exerting strain on a weak economy.
The launch of the service coincided with US President Donald Trump’s proposal to Egypt that Washington would settle Cairo’s long-standing water-sharing dispute with Ethiopia in exchange for acceptance of Israel’s plan to confine millions of Palestinians into a tent city on the Rafah border.
The plan was rejected by Egypt over concerns that it would be the first step to ethnically cleansing Palestinians into the Sinai Peninsula, which borders Egypt. Egyptian diplomats also warned that the plan would force Palestinians across the border into Egypt
Africanews, The National, Maghrebi.org, AP news, BBC, The New Arab plus agencies, UNHCR
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