Sudan, Libya agree to coordinate return of 467,000 refugees

December 6, 2025 (GENEVA) – Sudan and Libya agreed on Saturday to coordinate the voluntary return of almost half a million Sudanese who have sought refuge in Libya since war broke out at home in April 2023, the two interior ministers said.

Sudanese Interior Minister Babiker Samra Mustafa told Reuters after meeting Libya’s Imad al-Trabelsi on the sidelines of an International Organization for Migration (IOM) conference that both countries would work with the agency to “group and return” citizens safely.

Tripoli has registered 467,000 new arrivals from Sudan, adding to a pre-war Sudanese community already estimated in the tens of thousands.

The ministers, whose countries sit on key migration routes to Europe, also pledged tighter border controls and joint action against smuggling networks.

Samra blamed the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for “destroying state institutions” and fuelling human trafficking across Sudan’s western and southern borders. The RSF controls large swathes of Darfur and parts of the Blue Nile, according to U.N. monitors.

Khartoum was a driving force behind the 2014 Khartoum Process, a European-backed initiative to curb trafficking across the Sahel. Samra said Sudan wanted to revive the forum once the war ends.
“Restoring security in Sudan is a prerequisite for addressing migration complexities in the region,” he said.