The Sudan Civil War is a raging conflict whose intense fighting has created the worst Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) crisis in history (UNHCR, July 2024). After two years of war, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center reports that over 11.6 million people are displaced within Sudan, and another four million have fled the country (IDMC, 2025). The central countries that are accepting forcibly displaced Sudanese are the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, South Sudan, and Uganda (WFP, 2025). For Sudanese refugees, there is no explicitly correct answer as to which of the aforementioned countries is the safest option. This article presents an analysis of the various conflicts, instabilities, and insecurities that make fleeing to neighboring countries a perilous endeavor for Sudanese refugees, which may explain why many choose to stay and are internally displaced within the country rather than seeking refuge in another, where the situation could be just as dire.
Out of all Sudan’s neighbors, Egypt has the second-largest population and the highest GDP, which helps explain the 1.5 million Sudanese who have taken refuge in the ancient land (El Dahan, 2025). However, after initially allowing VISA free entry, Egypt has ramped up its border policies and adopted conservative laws, such as its new Asylum Law adopted in 2024 which gives the country the right to revoke refugee statuses while criminalizing migration, allowing authorities to either detain or deport Sudanese refugees (Refugees International, 2025). Sudanese refugees also face difficulty in securing proper migration documentation, with long wait times to obtain refugee status, an incredibly inconvenient process for people who are trapped in conflict zones (El Dahan, 2025). Yakoub, a Sudanese refugee who fled to Egypt after the war broke out, discussed the situation when he arrived: “The conditions there were not suitable for a refugee ... I did not have the proper documentation, and I was running from the authorities all the time” (El Dahan, 2025). Many refugees fleeing Sudan believe that if they cross the northern border, they will reach safety. However, in reality, the situation in Egypt is far from comfortable, with refugees having to flee to Libya, or they are detained and deported back to Sudan.
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Egypt is the ideal country for Sudanese refugees to reach Europe from, unlike its neighboring countries. However, due to the current crackdown on migration, refugees have been forced to flee towards the tumultuous human trafficking hub of Africa, Libya. Since the 2011 Civil War, Libya has faced constant government instability, allowing for illicit economies such as human trafficking and smuggling to flourish. Now, the civil war in Sudan is only expanding Libya’s underground network and increasing the danger for Sudanese refugees in Libya (Herbert, 2025). Further, Libya’s refugee policy is not up to international standards as the country is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, which outlines the international definition of a refugee. The country also criminalizes irregular migration and imposes penalties ranging from prolonged detention to the payment of fees against migrants (OMCT, 2023). Libya’s rampant human smuggling, coupled with uninviting legal frameworks, does not equate to a ‘haven’ for Sudanese refugees. However, with Egypt essentially closing its border, many people have nowhere else to go.
The country with the highest population on Sudan’s border is Ethiopia, which is also home to one of Africa’s largest economies. Even though the country is one of the most prosperous in Africa, a recent civil war has put thousands of Sudanese refugees at risk. Right on the border of Ethiopia and Sudan is the Amhara region, a regional state of Ethiopia, home to the Fano fighters. This militia group broke out into fighting with the Ethiopian army two years ago and continues to this day. Human Rights Watch claims that most Sudanese refugees initially went to “two refugee camps in the Amhara region, where local gunmen and militias carried out killings, beatings, looting, abductions for ransom, and forced labor” (Human Rights Watch, 2025). The conflict in the Amhara region has led to violence against Sudanese refugees by rebel groups. The refugees then sheltered in a forest until more attacks caused the UNHCR to relocate them to the town of Metemma on the Sudan border (Human Rights Watch, 2025). However, Ethiopian Security Forces forced the refugees into the Metemma transit center, beating them along the way and then sending some of the refugees back into Sudan, where “the situation does not allow repatriation” (Human Rights Watch, 2025). Further, Ethiopian Rebel groups have recently made incursions on the Sudan border, taking over farmland and exploiting the lack of security due to the civil war (Sudan Tribune, June 2024). Ethiopia’s inconvenient civil war on the border of Sudan is putting Sudanese refugees into a similar danger that they are already fleeing from, reducing the attractiveness of fleeing to Ethiopia, especially with Ethiopian Security Forces sending refugees back across the border.
Chad is a country that borders Sudan’s western region, Darfur, the primary stronghold for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), or “rebels”, which experiences the most violence from the conflict. As a result, Chad, whose economy is 26 times smaller than Egypt, the host of the most displaced Sudanese overall, has accepted around a million Sudanese refugees fleeing from conflict, making it the largest host country for Sudanese refugees specifically (WFP, 2025). With Chad also accepting refugees from conflicts in West Africa, the country is beginning to reach a breaking point where it cannot sustain the rapid influx of refugees. As a result, the overcrowded country is already experiencing food/water shortages and disease outbreaks in refugee camps, most recently, a cholera outbreak occurred in June 2025 (UNICEF, 2025). The UNHCR conducted interviews with newly arriving refugees, where many of them disclosed they were subjected to serious human rights violations, including sexual and physical violence (UNHCR, 2025). Chad has requested around $500 million (USD) to support the rapid influx of refugees, which can be life-saving. The sheer scale of Sudanese refugees crossing into Chad has made the country far too overcrowded, with international organizations not being able to meet the needs of the displaced, and not creating an ideal situation for others who would like to flee from Sudan.
The last major host for Sudanese refugees is South Sudan, standing with Egypt and Chad as the top three host countries for people fleeing the Sudan civil war. South Sudan is infamous for being one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking low in terms of GDP, average income, human development, and other key indicators (Human Rights Research Center, 2025). Currently, the world’s youngest country is hosting over 300,000 Sudanese refugees and 700,000 South Sudanese returnees. The worst situation for Sudanese Refugees may lie in South Sudan, as Abel Whande, CARE South Sudan Director, warns, “It is an intolerable truth that families escaping unimaginable horrors are finding themselves in an even more desperate situation here in South Sudan” (CARE, 2025). An estimated 7.7 million people in South Sudan are facing crisis-levels of food insecurity (CARE, 2025). South Sudan is not able to solve its internal struggles, let alone a rapid influx of refugees from Sudan. The Sudan and South Sudan border appears more like a mirror than a window of opportunity for the refugees that cross it.
The last two countries that host a significant number of South Sudanese refugees are Uganda and the Central African Republic, with a combined total of just over 100,000 Sudanese refugees, with an 80/20 split in favor of Uganda. Uganda is considered a "haven" for refugees, hosting 1.9 million currently (WFP, 2025). However, refugees in Uganda currently receive only 22% of full rations due to funding cuts, a statistic far too common in refugee-hosting countries (WFP, 2025). Additionally, violence and killing persist in Uganda, with South Sudanese refugees attacking Sudanese parts of refugee camps (Sudan Tribune, July 2024). Uganda is also a long journey for Sudanese nationals, as the country does not border Sudan, and any routes between the two are not ideal, making it a long shot for Uganda to be the precedent refugee-hosting country for Sudanese refugees. Lastly, the Central African Republic (CAR) borders Sudan, but the country faces numerous internal issues that hinder refugees from attaining peace. The CAR has been experiencing a displacement and refugee crisis for years. Inside the country, there are 693,700 refugees and 700,000 IDPs (UNHCR, Dec. 2024). Paired with the fact that the CAR ranks as one of the most fragile and least developed countries in the world (Human Rights Research, 2025), the nation joins the long list of countries close to Sudan which face their own conflicts, thereby eliminating the chances for Sudanese refugees to find peace.
Every country that borders Sudan presents a situation that includes conflict, crime, hunger, instability, and insecurity. None of the previously mentioned countries hosts a situation that can be described as ideal for refugees. The sheer scale of Sudan’s crisis, 4 million refugees, 11.6 million IDPs, and 24.6 million food insecure, requires more international aid and support, but has only seen funding cuts and stricter migration policies (UNHCR, July 2024 ; WFP, 2025). The civil war is now being called “the forgotten war” because the rest of the world has turned a blind eye. This article focuses on the challenges faced by forcibly displaced people in Sudan in attaining safety under current conditions within the country, as well as the various conflicts and crises occurring in neighboring countries. The African countries around Sudan simply do not have the resources to help Sudan on their own, and the complete lack of adequate international support is perpetuating death, starvation, sexual violence, and childhood trauma on a staggering scale, which will continue unless international attention shifts onto the situation, and aid is finally provided.
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