ABOUT four million people voluntarily returned to their places of origin in Sudan are facing a new “struggle for survival,” the United Nations said on Tuesday.

The UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said they had counted 3.99 million people who had returned mainly to the capital Khartoum and the agricultural state of Al-Jazirah.

The IOM warned that people have returned to destroyed communities and an urgent need for investment decimated basic infrastructure.

Sung Ah Lee of the IOM said: “Many are returning because they believe security has improved. Others are returning because life in displacement has become unbearable.”

But she warned, life on their return will be unsustainable without “urgent investment to restore essential services and rebuild infrastructure and revive livelihoods.”

The conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is now into its fourth year with no end in sight.

The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced nearly 12 million since it erupted in April 2023.

The army is being backed by Egypt and Saudi Arabia while the United Arab Emirates supports the RSF in what is increasingly being seen as a proxy war.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE all deny involvement.

Farmers are now returning to their fields to discover that irrigation systems and equipment have been destroyed, leaving food production at breaking point, says Ms Lee.

But the food crisis in Sudan is worsening. 

Millions of people in Sudan are being forced to survive on just one meal a day, according to NGOs, who warn that the war has “systematically eroded Sudan’s food system.”

Ms Lee said the IOM had managed to reach four million Sudanese with humanitarian aid since 2023 but the “scale of need remains immense.”

The IOM says it needs $170m (£128m) for its 2026 Sudan crisis response plan, which is currently “underfunded” by $97.2m (£73m).