Sudan / Adel Abdel Rahim / Anadolu

The Hope Committee for Voluntary Return in Sudan announced on Thursday the dispatch of 18 buses carrying 800 Sudanese from Egypt to their homeland.

The Sudanese News Agency reported that on Thursday, 800 citizens were dispatched on 18 buses from the Greater Cairo governorates to Sudan.

The agency quoted the head of the committee (a civil initiative), Mohamed Wadah, as affirming the continuation of the return operations according to the set plan, through a series of regular trips in the coming period.

He added: "This is in implementation of the second phase of the voluntary return program for Sudanese, by dispatching 100 buses to send 5,000 Sudanese from Egypt to the country."

He explained that due to the country's circumstances and its need to fill the shortage in civil service, the committee has moved to establish partnerships with the public and private sectors to repatriate university professors, lawyers, judges and their families.

The representative of the government Zakat Diwan, Amin Abdel Qader, affirmed the Diwan's commitment to repatriating all Sudanese who managed to reach Egypt from Libya, due to their exceptional circumstances, without specifying their number.

He stressed the keenness of the Zakat Diwan and the Hope Committee for Voluntary Return to improve performance and facilitate the task of volunteers and returnees.

On July 4, 1,174 Sudanese voluntarily returned from Egypt to their homeland, as part of operations to repatriate those wishing to return from diaspora countries.

Since the outbreak of war in Sudan in April 2023, more than 1.2 million Sudanese have left for Egypt, according to official estimates, while about 5 million Sudanese were residing there before the war, making Egypt one of the main destinations for those fleeing the fighting.

Until the end of 2025, about 428,676 people voluntarily returned to Sudan, according to figures previously announced by Ambassador Abdel Qader Abdullah, after an initiative launched by the Egyptian authorities in October 2025 to transport Sudanese wishing to return on a special train from Cairo to Aswan.

The war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, ongoing since 2023 due to disputes over integrating the latter into the military institution, has caused one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and the displacement of about 13 million people.

The Hope Committee for Voluntary Return, a civil humanitarian initiative, works in coordination with Sudanese state institutions to facilitate safe and dignified voluntary return.