The area of Abu Simbel in Egypt is witnessing a significant pile-up of travel buses carrying hundreds of Sudanese returning to their country.
On Saturday, Sudan News Agency reported that “the return of Sudanese from Egypt is facing difficulties, particularly the congestion of trips at the special battalion camp in Abu Simbel.”
Thousands of Sudanese who entered Egypt illegally are seeking to return to Sudan through the Abu Simbel crossing, where Egyptian authorities have provided facilitation to protect them from the dangers of returning through smugglers.
The Egyptian Army’s special battalion camp in Abu Simbel provides affordable trips to Wadi Halfa with minimal procedural complications, which has led many Sudanese to head there, hoping for a safe return to Sudan.
The official agency noted that travel via Abu Simbel is connected to ferries that transport buses to crossings on the eastern bank of the Nile, such as the Qastal – Ashkit crossing, where these trips face limitations in capacity and restrictions imposed by the authorities.
Charitable and community initiatives, along with special trips, have been organized to return Sudanese from Egypt, in addition to the voluntary return of families and individuals.
Return trips, which previously saw up to 15 buses daily via the Qastal – Ashkit crossing before March, have doubled in the last two weeks, causing congestion in Abu Simbel.
Activists and those responsible for group trips from Cairo and Aswan have called on the authorities and the Sudanese embassy in Egypt to ease the return flow through the continental route via the Argeen border crossing.
They requested that emergency travel documents be issued through the Sudanese consulate in Aswan to alleviate the bus congestion in Abu Simbel and allow Sudanese citizens to return to their country via the Argeen crossing.
One activist revealed that more than 120 buses were piled up in Abu Simbel waiting for their travel schedules, causing travelers, including the sick, children, and the elderly, to wait for more than three days before being allowed to depart.
