UN-Egyptian Cooperation to Address Rising Number of Sudanese Refugees

UN-Egyptian meeting to launch the refugee support program (Egyptian Foreign Ministry)
UN-Egyptian meeting to launch the refugee support program (Egyptian Foreign Ministry)
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UN-Egyptian Cooperation to Address Rising Number of Sudanese Refugees

UN-Egyptian meeting to launch the refugee support program (Egyptian Foreign Ministry)
UN-Egyptian meeting to launch the refugee support program (Egyptian Foreign Ministry)

With the increasing number of Sudanese arrivals in Egypt, the UN Refugee Agency is working closely with Egyptian authorities to accommodate around 1.2 million refugees and asylum seekers who have fled the conflict in Sudan since April 2023.

On Tuesday, the Egyptian government, in collaboration with the United Nations and the European Union, launched a joint program to be implemented by the UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization, under the framework of the Joint Platform for Refugees and Migrants.

According to a statement from the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the program, supported by a €12.2 million grant from the European Union, will work with the Egyptian government to meet essential needs in health and education, and to enhance resilience and protection for the most vulnerable refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers living in Egypt, as well as their host communities.

Cairo estimates the number of refugees, migrants, and foreign residents on its territory to be over 9 million.

Ambassador Amr Al-Jowaily, Assistant Foreign Minister for Multilateral Affairs and International Security, stated that Egypt "adopts a comprehensive approach that allows the integration of migrants and refugees into Egyptian society through a policy of not establishing camps and providing essential services."

He added: "We have high expectations that the program, with the valuable contributions of UN organizations and international partners, especially the European Union, will enhance coordination and direct funding to support national systems that provide essential services to migrants, refugees, and the host community, with a focus on education and healthcare, thereby integrating humanitarian and developmental dimensions."

Egypt is one of the main host countries in the region but faces unprecedented challenges due to global displacement, according to Elena Panova, the UN Resident Coordinator in Egypt. She emphasized that the responsibility of caring for and protecting displaced persons cannot fall solely on Egypt, but requires a collective response from the international community and local partners.

Christian Berger, the head of the European Union delegation to Egypt, reaffirmed the EU's continued support for Egypt's efforts to improve services for refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants, as well as to strengthen the resilience of host communities and explore opportunities for resettlement and safe, legal pathways for refugees in Egypt to the EU.

The UN joint program is based on recommendations from a 2022 report analyzing the status of educational and healthcare services provided to migrants and refugees in Egypt. The program will ensure the continued availability of essential protection services for the most vulnerable refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers, with host communities in selected areas also benefiting from it.

Cairo has expressed concern over the "immense burdens" it bears due to hosting millions on its soil. In May, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi spoke about the strain that "guests" — a term he often uses for migrants and refugees — place on his country’s limited resources, particularly water. He noted that they "consume about 4.5 billion cubic meters of water annually," given Egypt's average water consumption of 500 cubic meters per person, calling it a "significant burden."

According to Hanan Hamdan, head of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Egypt, the country has received around 1.2 million refugees and asylum seekers from Sudan.

In a televised statement on Tuesday, Hamdan confirmed that coordination with Egypt is ongoing to accommodate the increasing number of Sudanese refugees. She added that registered refugees with the UNHCR number around 800,000 from various nationalities, the majority of whom are Sudanese.

Dr. Ayman Zohry, migration and refugee expert, told Asharq Al-Awsat that part of the European grant to Cairo is expected to support services provided by the Egyptian government to refugees, such as education and healthcare. Additionally, a portion may be allocated as direct financial or in-kind support, such as the distribution of food and other goods.



Amnesty Accuses Israel of 'Live-streamed Genocide' against Gaza Palestinians

TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Amnesty Accuses Israel of 'Live-streamed Genocide' against Gaza Palestinians

TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Israel of committing a "live-streamed genocide" against Palestinians in Gaza by forcibly displacing most of the population and deliberately creating a humanitarian catastrophe.

In its annual report, Amnesty charged that Israel had acted with "specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, thus committing genocide".

Israel has rejected accusations of "genocide" from Amnesty, other rights groups and some states in its war in Gaza.

The conflict erupted after the Palestinian group Hamas's deadly October 7, 2023 attacks inside Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Hamas also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel in response launched a relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip and a ground operation that according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory has left at least 52,243 dead.

"Since 7 October 2023, when Hamas perpetrated horrific crimes against Israeli citizens and others and captured more than 250 hostages, the world has been made audience to a live-streamed genocide," Amnesty's secretary general Agnes Callamard said in the introduction to the report.

"States watched on as if powerless, as Israel killed thousands upon thousands of Palestinians, wiping out entire multigenerational families, destroying homes, livelihoods, hospitals and schools," she added.

'Extreme levels of suffering'

Gaza's civil defense agency said early Tuesday that four people were killed and others injured in an Israeli air strike on displaced persons' tents near the Al-Iqleem area in Southern Gaza.

The agency earlier warned fuel shortages meant it had been forced to suspend eight out of 12 emergency vehicles in Southern Gaza, including ambulances.

The lack of fuel "threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens and displaced persons in shelter centers," it said in a statement.

Amnesty's report said the Israeli campaign had left most of the Palestinians of Gaza "displaced, homeless, hungry, at risk of life-threatening diseases and unable to access medical care, power or clean water".

Amnesty said that throughout 2024 it had "documented multiple war crimes by Israel, including direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects, and indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks".

It said Israel's actions forcibly displaced 1.9 million Palestinians, around 90 percent of Gaza's population, and "deliberately engineered an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe".

Even as protesters hit the streets in Western capitals, "the world's governments individually and multilaterally failed repeatedly to take meaningful action to end the atrocities and were slow even in calling for a ceasefire".

Meanwhile, Amnesty also sounded alarm over Israeli actions in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank, and repeated an accusation that Israel was employing a system of "apartheid".

"Israel's system of apartheid became increasingly violent in the occupied West Bank, marked by a sharp increase in unlawful killings and state-backed attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian civilians," it said.

Heba Morayef, Amnesty director for the Middle East and North Africa region, denounced "the extreme levels of suffering that Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to endure on a daily basis over the past year" as well as "the world's complete inability or lack of political will to put a stop to it".