Cairo: Around 800 Sudanese in Egypt have voluntarily returned to Sudan aboard 18 buses, a local committee said Thursday. 'The return operations will continue according to the approved plan through a series of regular trips in the coming period,' Mohammed Wada'a, head of the Sudan's Hope Committee for Voluntary Return, a civil humanitarian initiative, said in statements carried by the state news agency SUNA.

According to Anadolu Agency, the trips are part of the second phase of a voluntary return program for Sudanese citizens, which includes operating 100 buses to facilitate the return of 5,000 Sudanese from Egypt. Amin Abdel Qader, a representative of the government's Zakat Chamber, mentioned the chamber's commitment to transporting all Sudanese who reached Egypt from Libya, though he did not specify their number.

Last week, a total of 1,174 Sudanese voluntarily returned from Egypt to Sudan as part of efforts to repatriate those wishing to return from countries of displacement. Since the war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) broke out in April 2023, more than 1.2 million Sudanese have fled to Egypt, according to official estimates. About 5 million Sudanese were already living in Egypt before the war, making it one of the main destinations for people fleeing the fighting.

By the end of 2025, about 428,676 people had voluntarily returned to Sudan, according to figures previously announced by the Sudanese authorities. The war between the Sudanese army and RSF over disputes about integrating the paramilitary force into the military has created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, killing tens of thousands of people and displacing about 13 million.