Over a thousand Sudanese refugees have reached or attempted to reach Europe in early 2025, the United Nations' refugee agency said on Friday, citing growing desperation in part due to reduced aid in the region.
Some 12 million people have been displaced by the two-year conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces © Mena Today
Over a thousand Sudanese refugees have reached or attempted to reach Europe in early 2025, the United Nations' refugee agency said on Friday, citing growing desperation in part due to reduced aid in the region.
Some 12 million people have been displaced by the two-year conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has fuelled what U.N. officials call the world's most devastating aid crisis.
While some have recently returned home to Khartoum, millions of others in neighbouring countries like Egypt and Chad face tough choices as services for refugees are being cut, including by the United States as part of an aid review.
Olga Sarrado, U.N. refugee agency spokesperson, told a press briefing in Geneva that some 484 Sudanese had arrived in Europe in January and February, up 38% from the same period last year.
Around 937 others were rescued or intercepted at sea and returned to Libya - more than double last year's figures for the same period, she added.
"As humanitarian aid crumbles and if the war does not abate, many more will have little choice than to join them," she said.
Migrant deaths hit a record last year, the U.N. migration agency said, with many perishing on the Mediterranean crossing which is one of the world's most dangerous.
Reporting by Emma Farge and Olivia Le Poidevin
On April 15, 2026, the war in Sudan entered its fourth year, a grim milestone that passed largely unnoticed, overshadowed by conflicts elsewhere. Yet the United Nations has called it unequivocally the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Germany pledged a further 20 million euros ($23.6 million) to Sudan this year, the development ministry said on Wednesday, ahead of an international aid conference hosted in Berlin that is aiming to gather more than $1 billion in funding commitments.
Two arms brokers arranged illegal deals to supply ex-Soviet surface-to-air missile systems to South Sudan and fighter jets to Libya during its civil war, British prosecutors told a London court on Tuesday.
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