Photo: Egyptian National Railways official facebook page
The Egyptian National Railways (ENR) said on Monday that the latest service departed Cairo carrying 1,028 passengers, most of them families. The train is bound for Aswan, a key transit point for Sudanese returning across the border.
The service was scheduled to arrive in Aswan at 11:40 local time on Monday, before making its return trip to Cairo on Tuesday, ENR said.
Since the programme began, Egypt has facilitated the transport of 41,828 Sudanese citizens through the rail corridor, according to ENR figures.
The initiative targets Sudanese displaced by the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which erupted in April 2023 and has triggered one of the region’s largest displacement crises.
Egypt has taken in hundreds of thousands of Sudanese since the fighting began, with most remaining in the country. Officials say the rail services are intended to support those who choose to return, as regional and international actors continue to coordinate humanitarian responses.
According to Egyptian government figures, more than 1.5 million Sudanese nationals have entered Egypt since the outbreak of the conflict, marking the largest refugee influx in the country’s history.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that as of 30 November 2025, Egypt was hosting about 822,000 registered Sudanese refugees and asylum seekers, making them the largest refugee group in the country, followed by Syrians, South Sudanese, and Eritreans.
In June, UNHCR said the total number of registered refugees in Egypt had surpassed one million, with Sudanese nationals accounting for nearly three-quarters of the total.
The scale of arrivals has put pressure on infrastructure and public services, particularly in southern governorates such as Aswan, which serves as the main entry point for people fleeing Sudan.
Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty renewed calls on Sunday for greater international burden-sharing, saying Egypt is hosting more than 10 million foreign nationals, only a small proportion of whom are formally registered with UNHCR.
He said Egypt receives no financial benefit from hosting refugees but continues to do so on humanitarian grounds, adding that some Sudanese have begun returning home amid reports of improved security in cities including Khartoum, Omdurman, and Port Sudan.
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