Egypt provides free train rides for Sudanese refugees returning home

Hundreds of people who have been displaced by fighting in Sudan gathered Monday at the central train station in Cairo to begin a free journey home.

The Egyptian government is funding train rides to Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, which recently was recaptured by the Sudanese Armed Forces from its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF.

Sudan has been in the throes of civil war since April 2023. The battle for power between the military and the RSF has caused a humanitarian crisis. Over 40,000 people have been killed and the war has caused one of the world’s largest displacement emergencies.

Egypt hosts the largest number of Sudanese refugees from the war with over 1.5 million people who fled north across the border.

Over 7 million have been displaced internally as the war engulfed much of the country.

The RSF took Khartoum at the start of the fighting in 2023 and held the capital until the