Arab, Sudanese

Sudanese have lived in Egypt for as long as the two countries have shared the Nile: traders, students, soldiers and workers settled in Cairo, Alexandria and Aswan through the twentieth century, and each of Sudan's civil wars sent more north. The war that broke out in April 2023 brought about 1.5 million people, most of them families from Khartoum and al-Jazira; after the army retook Khartoum in 2025 hundreds of thousands went home by train to Aswan and bus across the border, and roughly a million Sudanese remain. Most speak Sudanese Arabic and are Sunni Muslims with roots in the Sufi brotherhoods, and Nubians, Beja, Darfuris such as the Masalit and Zaghawa, Nuba and a small number of Christians live among them. In Giza's Faisal district and in Ain Shams, Sudanese restaurants serve ful and kisra, women in bright tobes run henna parlours from their flats, and evenings end over spiced jabana coffee.

Sudanese in Jordan are a small community of students, professionals, medical travellers and refugees, almost all living in Amman. Since the 2000s most Sudanese asylum seekers have come from Darfur, many arriving as companions of patients on medical visas and then seeking refuge, and Arab Sudanese form a smaller share of them. Their dark skin sets them apart from Jordan's other refugees: they report racist slurs and children bullied at school, and in December 2015 police broke up their sit-in outside the UN refugee agency and deported about 800 people to Sudan. Families share rented flats and meet in Sudanese cafes over coffee and kisra flatbread.

Sudanese in Kuwait are a community of about 20,000 people, most of them Arabic-speaking Muslims from the Nile valley of northern and central Sudan. Unlike most African migrants to the Gulf they are largely men in skilled and professional work: over 2,000 are doctors, dentists and nurses in Kuwait's hospitals, and others teach in universities or work as accountants, engineers and administrators, while a growing number come as drivers and household staff. Since war broke out in Sudan in April 2023 most cannot go home, and their wages support relatives displaced across Sudan and into Egypt. They gather over sweet tea and coffee poured from the clay jabana, the men in white jalabiya and turban on feast days and the women in the bright toub wrap.

Sudanese in Lebanon are about 15,000 people, nine in ten of them men, who came first as labourers and, since the 2000s, as refugees from Darfur and other war zones, joined by a few thousand more after Sudan's civil war broke out in April 2023. They work as bakers, cleaners, concierges, delivery drivers, petrol-station and warehouse hands, mostly bound to a Lebanese sponsor. Nearly all are Sunni Muslims, many attached to Sufi brotherhoods, speaking Sudanese Arabic, and some of the Darfuris also speak Fur, Masalit or Zaghawa. Since 1967 the Sudanese Club in Hamra, with its yellow walls painted with the Sudanese flag, has been the community's meeting place, and during Israel's 2024 bombing it became a shelter for families who lost their homes. Caught between two wars, many Sudanese now ask only to be resettled in a third country.

Sudanese are the largest foreign community in Libya, about 315,000 people in 2026 besides the Zaghawa, most of them refugees from the war that broke out in Sudan in April 2023. Before the war a smaller community of Sudanese teachers, accountants, engineers, cooks and labourers had lived in Libya for decades and was better accepted than most migrants; since 2023 families from Khartoum and Darfur, among them Fur, Masalit and other Darfuri peoples as well as Arabic-speaking northerners, have crossed the desert to the oasis of Kufra, living in shelters of cardboard and palm fronds before moving north to Ajdabiya, Benghazi and Tripoli. About half live in the east and most of the rest in the west. Unlike most migrants in Libya they include many women and children, and they bring the Sufi-coloured Islam, colloquial Arabic, music and foods such as ful and kisra of their homeland.

Sudanese in Morocco are mostly refugees from the war that broke out in Sudan in April 2023, young men above all, who crossed the Sahara through Chad, Libya or Niger and entered Morocco from Algeria near Oujda. Since 2025 they have been the largest refugee nationality in the country, ahead of Syrians, and many of them come from Darfur, so Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa speakers live among the Arabic-speaking Sudanese. Their Sudanese Arabic sets them apart from Moroccans, and Moroccan Darija is hard for them to follow. Many wait in Rabat for their asylum claims or camp in the hills near Nador, where Sudanese were most of those killed in the crush at the Melilla border fence in June 2022.

Sudanese in Oman are a community of about 25,000, most of them Arabic-speaking Muslims from the Nile valley of northern and central Sudan, and one of the fastest-growing Arab groups in the sultanate. Most are men working as doctors, nurses, engineers, accountants, drivers, technicians and labourers, sending wages home to relatives scattered by the war that broke out in Sudan in April 2023. The war also stranded thousands of Sudanese visitors in Oman, some for more than a year, until Sudan's government began flying them home from Muscat to Port Sudan in 2025. In Muscat they meet over sweet tea and coffee from the clay jabana, the men in white jalabiya and turban on feast days and the women wrapped in the bright Sudanese toub.

Sudanese have lived in Qatar since the 1950s and 1960s, when Al-Azhar-trained teachers, army and police officers, judges and officials helped build the young state's institutions, and Sudan opened its first embassy after President Nimeiry's visit in 1971. The community has grown to about 60,000, Sunni Muslims of the Maliki school, many of whom keep ties to Sufi brotherhoods from home. Doctors, engineers, accountants, teachers and journalists sit alongside traders, drivers and restaurant workers, and since 1998 their own community schools in Mesaimeer have taught Sudanese children. Since war broke out in Sudan in April 2023, Sudanese in Doha have become a lifeline for families at home, sending money and running volunteer online clinics.

Sudanese are one of the oldest foreign communities in Saudi Arabia, about 820,000 people: pilgrims who stayed after the Hajj settled in Mecca, Medina and Jeddah for centuries, and since the oil boom Sudanese teachers, doctors, accountants and clerks have staffed Saudi schools, hospitals and offices, followed by drivers, herders and builders. Most speak Sudanese Arabic and are Sunni Muslims with roots in Sufi brotherhoods, which they keep private in the kingdom; Nubians (Danagla and Mahas), Beja, the Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit of Darfur, Nuba and Sudanese of West African descent live among them. The war that broke out in Sudan in April 2023 turned the community into a refuge: tens of thousands of relatives have arrived on temporary visas, and workers now support families displaced at home. In Riyadh's Ghubairah district, known as Little Khartoum, Sudanese restaurants and sweet shops line the street and men break the Ramadan fast together on carpets laid on the pavement.

Sudanese in Tunisia are mostly people who fled the war that broke out in Sudan in April 2023, many of them from Darfur, who reached Tunisia overland through Chad and Libya or through Niger and Algeria, often after months of abuse on the way. Within a year they became the largest group of refugees in the country, a few thousand people waiting in Tunis and Sfax for protection, resettlement or a boat to Italy. In early 2024 families camped under tarps and blankets in a public garden in Tunis's Lac 1 district outside the migration agency's offices, selling cigarettes, fruit and clothes to get by. They share Arabic and Sunni Islam with Tunisians, yet as dark-skinned Africans they have been caught up in the arrests and expulsions aimed at sub-Saharan migrants since 2023.

Sudanese have helped run the Emirates since before the federation: a Sudanese lawyer became Abu Dhabi's head judge and Sheikh Zayed's legal adviser in 1966, and Sudanese teachers, doctors, officers and engineers followed. About 150,000 Sudanese Arabs now live in the country, Sunni Muslims of the Maliki school with strong ties to Sufi brotherhoods, joined since April 2023 by relatives fleeing the war at home. Their Sudanese Social Club in Dubai, licensed in 1973 with branches across the emirates, is where men gather after evening prayer to play whist, follow the news and drink hilu mur. The war has made them a lifeline for families in Sudan, while the Emirates' alleged backing of the Rapid Support Forces and Sudan's break of relations in 2025 leave many afraid to speak.