Category World News

Sudan has moved to the forefront of the global humanitarian landscape, now hosting the world’s largest internal displacement crisis. According to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), approximately 14 million people have been forced from their homes within the country.

These staggering figures in Sudan are part of a broader global surge in forced displacement. UNHCR estimates suggest the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide exceeded 122 million by the first half of 2025.

However, amid geopolitical shifts sweeping the Middle East, a countertrend has emerged. For the first time in a decade, the global number of displaced persons dropped by 5.9 million by mid-2025. This shift raises critical questions: what drives people back to conflict zones, and how do they survive in the ruins?

Al Jazeera Arabic spoke with experts, officials and returnees to understand the “Khartoum case” – a phenomenon where civilians are trickling back to the Sudanese capital despite the destruction, driven by nostalgia and a fragile sense of stability following the government’s recent return to the city.

A region in flux

While the global numbers show a slight decline, the regional reality remains grim. The conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which erupted in April 2023, has placed immense pressure on infrastructure across all Sudanese states.

Elsewhere in the region, the situation is equally dire. In the Gaza Strip, internal displacement affects nearly two million people—the vast majority of the population. Many have been displaced multiple times due to the Israeli offensive that began in October 2023.

Adnan Abu Hasna, media adviser for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), describes the situation in Gaza as unique. With 90 percent of homes, schools and infrastructure destroyed, Abu Hasna notes that 2.5 million Palestinians are, in effect, homeless, making a return to normalcy “almost impossible” amid total destruction.

Meanwhile, protracted conflicts continue to drive displacement figures in Syria, where 12 million remain displaced, and in Yemen, where the number exceeds five million.

The Khartoum experiment

Khartoum presents a unique case study in the dynamics of return. The recent resumption of government operations from the capital has sent a signal of potential stability.

Adel El-Baz, director-general of the African Centre for Consulting, views the government’s return as a “direct invitation” for citizens to follow suit. Major-General Osama Abdel Salam, former director of the Centre for Strategic Studies and Research, argues that the return of civilians naturally enhances security.

“The filling of abandoned neighbourhoods with residents reduces the risk of negative phenomena, prevents theft and spreads an atmosphere of reassurance,” Abdel Salam explained.

However, the infrastructure challenge is monumental. Saad El-Din El-Tayeb, spokesperson for Khartoum State, told Al Jazeera that the government has spent more than a year attempting to clear the debris of war.

“We began by cleaning the cities of bodies and burnt vehicles, restarting water stations, and rehabilitating power distribution lines,” El-Tayeb said.

He highlighted that Khartoum suffered the “largest looting operation” of its electrical infrastructure in history. Approximately 15,000 electrical transformers were stripped, with looters targeting the copper in underground cables and motors. Despite this, El-Tayeb noted that authorities are diverting available electricity to critical facilities like hospitals and water stations, while encouraging the use of solar energy.

‘Nostalgia’ amid the ruins

For the displaced, the decision to return is often emotional rather than practical. Rimah Hamed, a dentist and journalist, fled Khartoum for Gezira State and later Egypt when hospitals closed and security collapsed.

She recently returned to her family home in Khartoum. “The primary motivation was nostalgia,” Hamed told Al Jazeera. “The Sudanese character is sentimental. People returned because they missed their homes.”

Hamed found her neighbourhood transformed. Her house was empty, stripped of essential items, with no running water or electricity.

“There was only one water source in the neighbourhood where everyone went to fill up,” she recalled. “But gradually, neighbours started coming back. The neighbourhood began to regain its social features, and life returned little by little.”

Hamed observed that the community had developed a “psychological immunity” to the harsh conditions, adapting to shortages through grassroots initiatives.

Prerequisites for peace

While emotional ties drive some to return, sustainable reintegration requires tangible resources. Tom Ndahiro, a Rwandan genocide researcher, suggests that “relative peace” is the baseline requirement – a sense that the situation has improved enough to survive the night.

Experts interviewed by Al Jazeera outlined a hierarchy of needs for a sustainable return:

• Security: A trusted leadership to organise resettlement and prevent chaos.
• Shelter: Even temporary structures like tents, provided they offer safety.
• Essentials: Food security and access to clean water are non-negotiable.
• Power: Electricity is viewed as the decisive factor for economic stability.

Rami Mahkar, a journalist, emphasised that security must come first. “Without security, the displaced are forced to move again,” he said, adding that the presence of functioning shops for food and supplies is critical for those trying to rebuild their lives.

A private plane carrying Ajit Pawar, the deputy chief minister of India’s Maharashtra state, crashed on Wednesday, killing him and four other people on board, authorities said.

The aircraft was en route to Baramati, Pawar’s home city, from India’s financial capital of Mumbai when it crash-landed in an open field and burst into flames some 254km (159 miles) from the state capital.

The reason behind the crash was not immediately known, and an investigation is under way.

Who was Ajit Pawar?

Pawar, 66, was a key political figure and served as the second-highest elected official in Maharashtra, India’s wealthiest state.

He was an ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ‌in the state government, leading a faction ⁠that split in 2023 from the opposition Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

He wielded considerable influence in the state’s sugar belt and was known for his ability to mobilise rural voters.

Born on July 22, 1959, Pawar started his political career with the Indian National Congress, commonly known as the Congress party, in the late 1980s, influenced by his uncle Sharad Pawar, according to a report in India’s The Hindu newspaper.

In 1991, he was first elected as a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from the Baramati constituency, which he represented for a record eight terms.

In 1999, when his powerful uncle formed the NCP, Pawar joined it and served several terms as Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister in coalitions led by the NCP over the past two decades.

In 2019, Pawar briefly left the NCP to join the BJP’s cabinet in Maharashtra as a deputy chief minister. He later returned to the party and, in 2023, orchestrated a split within the NCP by aligning with the BJP-led coalition.

In February 2024, the Election Commission of India acknowledged Ajit Pawar’s faction as the official NCP. The same year, he was sworn in as Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister for a sixth time.

What’s Pawar’s legacy?

Pawar’s contribution to the development of his region was significant, said a report in The Indian Express newspaper, particularly in Maharashtra’s Pimpri-Chinchwad area, where he pushed “large-scale infrastructure projects, including wider roads and improved civic facilities”.

Baramati especially underwent a makeover, with several infrastructure projects attributed to him, as he supervised the development of his bastion with his uncle, Sharad Pawar.

However, Pawar was also accused of corruption in two prominent cases.

In an alleged Maharashtra irrigation scam, he was accused of involvement in irregularities in awarding contracts worth millions of dollars for civic projects between 1999 and 2009.

Last year, he was named in a land scam in Maharashtra’s Pune city, with a company owned by his son accused of buying reserved government land below the market value. Upon uproar, the deal was scrapped.

Government inquiries into both the alleged scams remain inconclusive.

How did Pawar die?

Pawar’s aircraft, travelling from Mumbai, tried to make an emergency landing in the family stronghold of Baramati, where he was set to canvass ‍in the local elections.

The VSR Ventures-operated Learjet 45 aircraft crashed in an open field at about 8:30am (03:00 GMT) while landing at Baramati airport, local media reported.

The charter aircraft went down in flames, said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), India’s aviation regulator.

Videos from the crash site showed smoke billowing from some of the burning wreckage of the plane, scattered across the open field.

“At first it was ‌on fire, after that there were four or five more explosions,” an unidentified witness told India’s ANI news agency, after seeing the plane crash and explode. But the flames were ‌too fierce to pull anyone out, he added.

Pawar was travelling with his personal security officer, an assistant, and two crew members at the time of the crash, the DGCA said.

VK ⁠Singh, the director of VSR Ventures, told broadcaster India Today the cause of the crash was not clear.

“The aircraft is 100 percent safe,” he said. “The crew was fairly experienced.”

What have been the reactions?

PM Modi described Pawar as a “leader of the people” in a post he shared on X. He said Pawar’s “untimely demise” was “shocking and saddening”.

“Shri Ajit Pawar Ji was a leader of the people … [with] a strong grassroots level connect,” Modi said, adding that he was a “widely respected” and “hardworking” political stalwart.

“His understanding of administrative matters and passion for empowering the poor and downtrodden were also noteworthy.”

Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party also posted his condolences on X, calling Pawar’s death “extremely painful”.

“I am with the people of Maharashtra in this hour of grief,” he wrote.

Maharashtra’s Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said he had “no words to express my emotions”.

Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has been sprayed with a foul-smelling liquid during a town hall she was hosting on Tuesday. A man rushed towards the stage and targeted her as she criticised immigration enforcement actions.

Omar was not injured in the attack. “Here’s the reality that people like this ugly man don’t understand. We are Minnesota strong, and we will stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw at us,” she told the crowd.

“I learned at a young age you don’t give in to threats,” Omar added.

While the motivation for the man’s attack on Omar is so far unknown, the Somalia-born congresswoman has long been the target of threats of violence. Many of those threats have been from strangers, but Omar has also been the repeated target of United States President Donald Trump’s ire.

And in recent weeks, Trump has extended hostile rhetoric to all Somali Americans and Somalia while his administration has launched its most severe crackdown on immigrants yet in the state of Minnesota, centred on the city of Minneapolis, which Omar represents in the US House of Representatives. In the past three weeks, federal officers have shot dead two US citizens who were protesting against the crackdown, which in turn further inflamed tensions in the state.

So what happened on Tuesday, and what’s behind Trump’s fixation with Omar, Somalis and Minnesota?

What happened at Omar’s event?

Omar was attacked in Minneapolis on Tuesday when a man rushed towards the stage during her town hall and sprayed her with an unknown liquid using a syringe, according to police and video footage.

The incident occurred as Omar was criticising federal immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota, singling out the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and the head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

“ICE cannot be reformed. It cannot be rehabilitated. We must abolish ICE for good, and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem must resign or face impeachment,” Omar said to applause shortly before the attack.

The man, identified as 55-year-old Anthony Kazmierczak, was sitting in the front row when he stood up and ran towards the podium. Omar took a few steps towards him with her hand raised before he was tackled, restrained by security and arrested.

In a statement, Omar’s office said she continued the event after the disruption. “During her town hall, an agitator tried to attack the congresswoman by spraying an unknown substance with a syringe,” the statement said. “She continued with her town hall, because she doesn’t let bullies win.”

The crowd cheered as the man was pinned to the floor and his hands were tied behind his back. In video footage, someone in the audience can be heard saying, “Oh, my God, he sprayed something on her.”

Authorities have not publicly identified the substance, but witnesses described a strong, unpleasant odour.

The incident took place within an hour of Trump, a Republican, mentioning the Democrat during a speech in Iowa.

Who is Ilhan Omar?

Omar came to the US as a child refugee from Somalia.

She was born in Mogadishu and her family fled the country in 1991 when Somalia descended into prolonged cycles of clan-based violence, famine and attacks by the armed group al-Shabab, all of which continue to destabilise the Horn of Africa.

After spending four years in a refugee camp in Kenya, her family was granted resettlement in the US state of Virginia. They later moved to Minneapolis, home to the largest Somali communities in the country.

Minnesota has an estimated 80,000 people of Somali origin. A majority of them were born in the US. Of those who were born outside the country, 87 percent are naturalised citizens.

Since November, Trump has repeatedly attacked Somalia and its diaspora while also keeping a focus on Omar.

How has Trump targeted Somalis?

On November 21, Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that he was “immediately” terminating temporary protected status (TPS) for Somali immigrants in Minnesota, referring to a programme designed to provide emergency refuge for people whose countries are in crisis. About 705 Somalis were on that programme.

Without providing evidence, Trump claimed that “Somali gangs are terrorising the people of that great State” and accused Governor Tim Walz, without proof, of overseeing a state that had become a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity”.

“Send them back to where they came from,” Trump said. “It’s OVER!”

In early December, Trump told reporters that he did not want Somali immigrants in the US, claiming that residents of the East African country “contributed nothing” to the US while relying on aid. Trump did not provide any evidence to support these claims.

He called Somali immigrants “garbage“.

His language against Somalis has been widely criticised as racist, including by some members of his Republican Party. But that hasn’t stopped Trump.

Speaking to reporters in December, he said Somalia “isn’t even a country” and the nation “doesn’t function”.

At the start of January, the Trump administration froze childcare payments in Minnesota during an investigation into alleged fraud that the president has insisted revolves around benefits for Somali immigrants.

Trump also took his attacks against Somalis to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he spoke last week.

“We’re cracking down on more than $19bn in fraud that was stolen by Somalian bandits,” he said. “Can you believe that? Somalia – they turned out to be higher IQ than we thought. I always say these are low-IQ people. How did they go into Minnesota and steal all that money?”

How is Trump targeting Minnesota and why?

Officially, Trump has justified his administration’s crackdown in Minnesota as aimed at undocumented immigrants whom he has blamed, without evidence, for disproportionately contributing to crime and fraud.

But even by the standards of ICE operations in multiple cities and states across the country, the nature and duration of the violence unleashed by its officers and the officers of other federal agencies, such as Border Patrol, on the streets of Minnesota appear unmatched, according to several observers.

On January 7, Renee Nicole Good, a 34-year-old woman, was shot dead by an ICE agent in Minneapolis while she was trying to drive her car away from officers. The Trump administration claimed the officer fired in self-defence, but video evidence has raised questions about that account.

Then, on Saturday, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, was shot dead by federal agents while he was helping a woman pushed down on the street by officers. Trump administration officials claimed Pretti had brandished a handgun and was threatening officers, but video footage showed that he did not have a weapon in his hand at the time when he was shot.

On January 13 after Good had been killed, Trump lashed out at Minnesota’s Democratic leadership. While referring to the “GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA” in a Truth Social post, he also issued a blunt warning: “THE DAY OF RETRIBUTION & RECKONING IS COMING.”

Governor Walz was quick to pick up on Trump’s comments and accuse him of choosing to “punish” the state because it had voted against him in the past three presidential elections.

Apart from Illinois, Minnesota is the only Upper Midwestern state that Trump failed to win even once in his three bids for the presidency in 2016, 2020 and 2024. Walz himself was the Democratic Party’s vice presidential candidate in 2024, running against Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

What’s Trump’s history of attacking Ilhan Omar?

In April 2019, Trump falsely accused Omar of downplaying the September 11, 2001, attacks. After his post on X against Omar, the newly elected member of the House of Representatives witnessed a spike in death threats.

Three months later, as he launched his re-election bid for the 2020 election, Trump accused Omar of being ungrateful towards the US as his supporters chanted, “Send her back!”

Since then, he has repeatedly targeted Omar over her headscarf, her Somali background and her persistent criticism of his policies.

“She’s an incompetent person. She’s a real terrible person,” Trump said in December, claiming without evidence that Omar “hates everybody” and is anti-Semitic.