Sudanese refugees are people originating from Sudan, seeking refuge outside the borders of their native country. In recent history, Sudan has been the stage for prolonged conflicts and civil wars, as well as environmental changes, namely desertification. These forces have resulted not only in violence and famine but also the forced migration of large numbers of the Sudanese population, both inside and outside the country's borders. Given the expansive geographic territory of Sudan, and the regional and ethnic tensions and conflicts, much of the forced migration in Sudan has been internal. Yet, these populations are not immune to similar issues that typically accompany refugeedom, including economic hardship and providing themselves and their families with sustenance and basic needs. With the creation of a South Sudanese state, questions surrounding southern Sudanese IDPs may become questions of South Sudanese refugees.
Deliberate displacement has been a recurring feature of Sudan’s history, used by successive authorities to advance political, economic, and military objectives. Such practices can be traced back to the nineteenth century and continued under both colonial rule and post-independence governments, often justified on grounds of security, development, or urban planning. As a result, entire communities have repeatedly been uprooted during periods of conflict as well as in times formally described as peace.[11]
First Sudanese Civil War
The First Sudanese Civil War in southern Sudan caused widespread displacement and the collapse of basic services, driving large numbers of civilians to seek refuge both internally and across borders. Estimates indicated that around 500,000 people were internally displaced during this war, many of them living outside towns and formal settlements.[a] In addition, approximately 180,000 southern Sudanese sought refuge in neighbouring countries, including about 74,000 in Uganda, 60,000 in Zaire, 20,000 in Ethiopia, and roughly 21,000 in the Central African Republic.[12]
In host countries, refugees were primarily settled in planned rural settlements developed with support from UNHCR. Over time, many of these settlements developed basic infrastructure and services and were intended to promote a degree of self sufficiency.[12] This period of large scale displacement eased temporarily following the Addis Ababa Peace Agreement in 1972[13] that ended the First Sudanese Civil War.[14]
Second Sudanese Civil War
With the outbreak of the Second Sudanese Civil War in 1983, violence in Southern Sudan intensified and security conditions deteriorated. As a result, many Ugandan refugees living in Southern Sudan returned to Uganda, while large numbers of Southern Sudanese also fled across the border into Uganda.[13][15] As in the first civil war, many people displaced within Southern Sudan did not leave the country but remained internally displaced, often under extremely harsh conditions. During this war, a new conflict erupted in 2003 in Sudan’s western Darfur region. The violence caused hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths and forced millions of people from Darfur to flee both within Sudan and abroad.[11]
This phase formally came to an end in 2005 with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which facilitated the return of internally displaced persons to their places of origin and enabled refugees to return to Sudan.[15]
An ongoing refugee crisis began in Sudan in mid-April 2023 after the outbreak of the Sudanese civil war. As of November 2025, the conflict has forced more than 11.7 million people from their homes, including about 7.26 million displaced within Sudan and a further 4.25 million who have crossed the border,[16] making it the largest displacement crisis in the world.[17]
Reasons for fleeing
The movement of populations within and around the territory of modern-day Sudan and its neighbors for trade, opportunity, climatic variations, and conflicts is not unique to recent or contemporary history. But these movements have intensified and become more concentrated for reasons including prolonged civil war, violence between various populations along ethnic and political lines, droughts and subsequent famines in the 1980s, and humanitarian emergencies and famine caused by improper responses to previous crises by international aid organizations. Movements of people are also inherently more problematic across international boundaries, which may be contradictory to natural population flows within the region.[18]
Historically, refugee assistance programs in Sudan relied on the definition of a refugee as one who had crossed an international frontier. This definition is increasingly inappropriate worldwide and especially so in Sudanic Africa, where the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) exceeded the number of refugees.[19]
As of 2016, an estimated 3.2 million Sudanese were IDPs, and another 78,000 were in IDP-like situations.[20] 300,000 of these IDPs were newly displaced in the first months of 2013 due to renewed intertribal conflict. Continuing insecurity, combined with government restrictions on humanitarian access in the Darfur region, South Kordofan, and the Blue Nile States, hampered UNHCR's activities.[21] Before April 2023, the number of IDPs were estimated at 3.8 million.[11]
Following the outbreak of the 2023 Sudan conflict, by November 2025 the number of IDPs had increased to 7.26 million.[16]
Sudanese migration to Egypt has a long history, driven by the search for safety as well as economic opportunities.[22]:16 Sudanese refugees began arriving in Egypt after the outbreak of the first Sudanese civil war in 1955.[23] Egypt served as an appealing place of refuge for many of these displaced people, owing both to the close historical ties between the two countries and to Egypt’s fairly well developed economy and education system.[24]:59
Conditions in Egypt for Sudanese refugees were challenging. Many were not formally recognized as refugees.[25]:294 Housing costs were high,[22] legal employment opportunities were difficult to secure,[25]{ref>:292 and access to health care was limited.[22] The education system was overburdened and inadequate.[26]
South Sudan
By January 2025, more than one million people had fled the war in Sudan to seek refuge in neighbouring South Sudan.[27] Over 770,000 people had reportedly fled through the Joda crossing on South Sudan’s northern border with Sudan in the 21 months preceding January 2025.[28]
By November 2025, there was severe food insecurity and high levels of malnutrition amid ongoing conflict and displacement in South Sudan. Recurrent flooding had disrupted livelihoods and agricultural production. The continued arrivals from Sudan, alongside returning South Sudanese nationals, placed additional pressure on already strained markets, services, and natural resources, while a prolonged economic crisis sharply reduced household purchasing power. These conditions were further aggravated by disease outbreaks, limited access to health care, and inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene services.[29]
Kenya
An estimated 3,500 Sudanese refugees are living in Kenya.
Beginning in 2006, thousands of Sudanese asylum seekers crossed into Israel from Egypt after fleeing conflict in Sudan and deteriorating conditions in their first country of asylum.[31][32] Their status in Israel has remained precarious, marked by restrictive asylum policies,[33] low recognition rates,[34] periods of detention,[31] and reliance on temporary protection and employment practices that persist despite a formal ban on hiring Sudanese asylum seekers.[35]
Aid
Issues
Due to the shortages in UNHCR assistance to Sudanese refugees, some Church groups have opened learning centers for refugee children. Furthermore, churches also offer training programs for adult refugees, provide food rations to families, in addition to financial assistance, health services, and job placement.[36] With respect to those Sudanese living in shantytowns in Greater Khartoum or in other urban areas of Africa and the Middle East, remittances provided by kin resettledin Western countries have become an essential part of the overall income needed to meet daily subsistence and other critical needs.[37]Urban refugees’ reliance on cash assistance from abroad is seen as a unique situation since there are few NGOs and humanitarian-based support mechanisms available to adequately meet the needs of refugees in Cairo, Beirut, Damascus, and elsewhere on Sudan's periphery.[37]
Gender issues
In their communities, Sudanese women play a substantial economic role, as the inhabitants of the South depend on agriculture, grazing, fishing, and hunting.[19] When forced to migrate to the capital Khartoum, women pick up marginal work that brings in little income and exposes them to the risk of arrest by authorities. Displaced women often sell tea or liquor, but since the sale of alcohol is illegal, this can lead to imprisonment.[19] Displaced women also suffer in ways that men do not, and in the shantytowns and government-run camps around Khartoum, women continue to suffer violations of their rights and assaults on their bodily integrity.[19]
In Egypt, many southern Sudanese women have entered the Egyptian workforce to support their families.[38] As some men have assumed familial roles like food preparation and childcare, they have become sensitized to the difficulties women experience.[38] Men, however, are uncomfortable with this role reversal and tend to emphasize the negative consequences it has on child development and the husband-wife relationship.[38]
Whereas earlier waves of Sudanese refugees found asylum first in neighbouring countries, contemporary Sudanese refugees use these countries as a springboard for resettlement in a third country.[39] Some refugees find themselves moving between different countries in the region in order to increase their chances for resettlement.
Repatriation of Sudanese refugees remains difficult given the ongoing conflict and tensions in Darfur and South Sudan. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement is viewed as the principal determinant of peace and stability in Sudan.[40] This pact paved the way for the return of thousands of Sudanese refugees from neighboring countries.[41]
In South Sudan, armed groups like Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and intertribal clashes have produced increased levels of violence. The patterns of violence point to a clear targeting of women and children.[42] This presents a definite obstacle to repatriation. In Darfur, insecurity, land occupation, and crop destruction continue to generate fresh displacement and prevent returns.[42]
During the civil war between Eritrea and Ethiopia, many traveled to Sudan as refugees. These camps had a very harsh environment, medicine and clean water were scarce. Some survived on other nations. (e.g. UN Rations). As of 2016, there were 232,000 South Sudanese refugees in Sudan.[43]
↑Source says: "hid in the bush" which is interpreted as internally displaced civilians who fled to rural, forested, or remote areas, outside towns or formal settlements.
↑de Waal, Alex (1988). "Refugees and the Creation of Famine: The Case of Dar Masalit, Sudan". Journal of Refugee Studies. 1 (2): 129. doi:10.1093/jrs/1.2.127.
1234Abusharaf, Rogaia Mustafa (2009). Transforming Displaced Women in Sudan: Politics and the Body in a Squatter Settlement. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
123Edwards, Jane Kani (2007). Sudanese Women Refugees: Transformations and Future Imaginings. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
↑Assal, Munzoul A. M. "Refugees To and From Sudan"(PDF). Paper. The Forced Migration & Refugee Studies Program at the American University in Cairo. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2011-01-11. Retrieved 28 March 2011.
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