Returnees and refugees
As war rages on in Sudan, Egypt works to accommodate…
In a press conference held in Cairo by the Egyptian Red Crescent (ERC), it was announced that the ERC has received 27 tons of relief supplies provided by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and funded by the European Union (EU) to aid Sudanese who have fled the Sudan war into Egypt.
Attending the press conference was Egypt’s Minister of Social Solidarity Nevine al-Kabbaj, Head of the European Union Delegation to Egypt Christian Berger, Resident Representative of UNDP Alessandro Fracassetti, and Executive Manager of ERC Ramy al-Nazer.
98,000 refugees from Sudan
Ms Kabbaj said that the relief aid is meant to support Egypt’s intensive efforts to receive refugees entering Egypt on the Sudanese border. It includes immediate medical supplies and meals, also personal protective equipment. “Providing the grant to support the efforts of the Egyptian Red Crescent towards the Sudanese crisis reflects appreciation and trust by the international community for the Egyptian Red Crescent,” she said, “given that the ERC has demonstrated its capability through its urgent and impactful interventions inside and outside of Egypt.”
Ms Kabbaj said that the ministry has a budget of EGP150 million for local and international relief efforts. It operates through a nationwide network of 26 relief centres that collaborate with local NGOs and volunteer workers. She said that, according to UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) figures, some 63 per cent of those fleeing the war in Sudan are women and children under 18. She said Egypt already hosts some 8 million refugees from over the world.
Head of the European Union Delegation to Egypt Christian Berger explained that the EU and its member states are committed to supporting Egypt and Sudan in these difficult times. “We are working with our partners to assist Egypt in its efforts to ensure the basic social and healthcare needs of Sudanese refugees are met.”
The EU has also provided 200,000 euros to the ERC to aid those coming from Sudan to Egypt, Mr Berger added.
According to UN figures, some 98,000 refugees have fled to Egypt since the fighting began in Sudan.
Development oriented
“Our first goal will be to strengthen the capacities of the government and the relevant local authorities to provide vital basic services to those affected,” Alessandro Fracassetti, UNDP resident representative in Egypt said, pledging to work closely with the Egyptian government, humanitarian aid workers, NGOs, and other UN agencies to create a development-oriented approach regarding both immediate and long-term response efforts.
For his part, Executive Manager of ERC Ramy al-Nazer said that ERC volunteers have been present round the clock at the Egypt Sudanese border since the onset of the fighting, to offer relief and medical services. He said that partnering with the Social Solidarity Ministry and the EU during such critical times makes for an effective strategy to fully serve the needs of refugees.
Ms Kabbaj concluded by thanking Aswan Governor Ashraf Attiya for the huge efforts the southern governorate is doing to alleviate the refugee influx crisis.
Southern outpost: Aswan
As Egypt works to offer services to returnees and refugees fleeing the war in Sudan, Aswan Governor Ashraf Attiya announced on 13 May that a second Nile ferry has started operation, transporting people and cargo arriving from Sudan into Egypt at Qastal land crossing on the Egyptian Sudanese border.
The ferry, which belongs to the city of Abu Simbel, has been outfitted to carry 100 passengers, 10 coaches or trucks, and 50 tons of cargo. It joins a fleet of Egyptian civilian and military ferries, buses and vehicles working round the clock to move people and cargo from Qastal into Egypt.
Governor Attiya said that an operations room has been set up by Aswan Governorate, that he himself supervises, to deal with the crisis. The governorate, he said, coordinates with the land crossings at Qastal and Arqeen, also the international land terminus at Karkar, for updated figures of the numbers crossing the borders, to be ready to receive them with meals and dry foods, medical and healthcare, also mental health support. Health services are offered through Health Ministry clinics and convoys.
The Governor explained that logistics services work with the Ministry of Transport and traffic authorities to provide trains, coaches, and microbuses to move the arrivals further inland to Cairo, Alexandria, or whichever destination they would require. He said that officials at the governorate are working round the clock with a host of NGOs, civil society institutions, and volunteers to ensure all services to returnees and refugees are adequately provided: food and water, healthcare, childcare and support, accommodations and transport, hygiene services and garbage disposal, and others.
The border crossings have been receiving large numbers of buses carrying nationals of various countries, among them China, the Philippines and India.
Safaga Red Sea port
A few days earlier, Health Ministry Spokesperson Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar said health services had on 10 May been provided to 581 people arriving from Port Sudan to Egypt’s Red Sea port of Safaga. He said that 466 were examined in the port’s quarantine clinics, 114 children were administered polio vaccines [Egypt is a polio-free country according to WHO], and one patient was moved to hospital.
The 466 included 184 Egyptians, 272 Sudanese, five Britons, an American and a Kenyan who had been stranded in Sudan. They were welcomed on their arrival at the port of Safaga on 9 May by Red Sea Governor Amr Hanafi and Head of the Red Sea Ports Authority Mohamed Abdel Rahim.
Students
Egypt’s national and private universities will be accepting Egyptian students who had been studying at Sudanese universities and managed to return to Egypt, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Mohamed Ayman Ashour announced. They will be required, however, to meet the entry requirements, he said.
The decision, taken jointly by Egypt’s Cabinet and Supreme Council for Private and National Universities, allows the enrolment of students arriving from conflict zones such as Sudan, Russia, and Ukraine.
A number of universities have announced lenient admissions criteria for repatriated students. The national Nile University exempted returning students from specific conditions they might not have been able to fulfill, in order to give them better chances at acceptance, whereas the private Al Salam University announced special scholarships for them.
Egyptian students requesting transfer to private and national universities in Egypt were required to complete an online form. By 4 May, some 4,000 students had registered, according to the Ministry of Emigration and Expatriate Affairs.
The Ministry noted that most Egyptian students have been evacuated and returned to Egypt, including two injured students: Engineering student Mona Awad and Dentistry student Mahmoud Atef who were wounded by shrapnel shells.
A diabetic medical student, Saber Nasr El-Din, died on 23 April 2023 because he could not get an insulin shot at a pharmacy or hospital. He was buried in Sudan after efforts to secure safe passage to Egypt failed.
Repatriation efforts
Egypt is making great efforts to evacuate Egyptians still stranded in Sudan, Red Sea Governor Amr Hanafi said, noting that coordination with Sudanese authorities was instrumental in providing safe passage for Egyptians to their homeland, including an airlift by military aircraft. Official figures put the number of Egyptians residing, working or studying in Sudan at 10,000 when the war broke out on 15 April 2023. By end of April, the Egyptian government said it had repatriated 6,399. No further repatriation was conducted, but the Foreign Ministry pledged to resume the efforts starting 22 May.