Sudanese returns from Egypt surge sharply in early 2025, IOM says

April 7, 2025 (GENEVA, Switzerland) – The number of Sudanese nationals returning from neighbouring Egypt surged sharply in the first quarter of 2025, the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday, indicating a potential shift in displacement dynamics.

The IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) found the average monthly number of returns from Egypt between January and March was nearly seven times higher than the monthly average in 2024.

An estimated 72,039 people returned from Egypt in the first three months of 2025 alone, the IOM-DTM recorded. That compares with about 42,418 returns logged during the whole of 2024, making the number so far this year nearly double the total for all of last year.

Since IOM began monitoring in January 2024, a total of about 114,457 people have been recorded returning to Sudan from Egypt.

The returns were recorded mainly at the Ashkeet border crossing (87%), with the remainder at Argeen (13%).

The majority of returnees were Sudanese nationals originally displaced from the capital Khartoum (71%) or Al Jazirah state (22%), the report said.

“Assuming the monthly rate of return movements remains constant, DTM anticipates that hundreds of thousands of individuals may return to Sudan from Egypt within the next six months, depending on evolving dynamics,” the IOM report stated.

The increase comes against the backdrop of widespread displacement caused by the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that erupted in April 2023. 1 Nearly four million people have fled Sudan into neighbouring countries since the war began, according to IOM figures.