Syrians have found refuge in an unexpected place: the Republic of Sudan. The streets of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, are bustling with new Syrian restaurants, bakeries and sweets shops. One shop, Anas’ Shwarma, opened in 2014, and who fled the war. Sudan, whose own civil war created millions of refugees, is now a top destination country for many fleeing the conflict in Syria. Today, the Syrian community has grown to 100,000 according to Sudan’s Commission of Refugees, while other estimates place that number at . It is Sudan, not the wealthy countries of the West, that is providing a model for alleviating the Syrian refugee crisis.

Sudan’s refugee population has been growing since the 1990s, which is no surprise given its shared border with and the ongoing . But what is prompting distant Syrians to seek refuge there today?

Sudan is currently the only country in the world that allows Syrians to enter without a visa and without imposing restrictions when they arrive. This has made Sudan a top choice for Syrian refugees. According to Usamah Mohamed, a Sudanese writer based in Khartoum, “Syrians appear to feel welcomed; they had no issues integrating in society.”

Not only has the Sudanese government kept the visa-waiver program, but it also granted Syrians the right to work and education. This means that any Syrian can enroll in a public Sudanese school or college and apply to jobs without needing a permit. In Lebanon, many of $200 if they are not registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). , with less than 14,000 of the 3 million Syrian refugees being able to obtain one.

Syrians may have the right to work in Sudan, but it doesn’t mean they can find jobs easily. Opportunities are limited, and Sudan’s unemployment is about 20%. But Syrians have been entrepreneurial. According to Noaman Madibbo, a Sudanese student at George Washington University who spent the summer in Khartoum, “Syrians who come to Sudan are very industrious. They started working in trade or crafts. Many work as construction workers, plumbers, tailors, and carpenters. Many more opened up restaurants and bakeries, especially in the capital city.” Madibbo’s grandfather runs a travel agency and assures that “business is booming,” with two weekly flights from Damascus to Khartoum.

Sudan is both a destination and a transit point for many Syrians. Some stay briefly en route to Egypt or even to Europe by crossing from Sudan to Libya. Sudan has offered a citizenship track for any Syrian who has resided in the country for over six months. According to one estimate, . Having a Sudanese passport can be incredibly valuable to Syrian refugees as it allows them to travel more freely since many countries have stopped issuing them visas.

Why has Sudan adopted such an open-door policy for Syrians?

Well, according to Noaman, “It’s good PR.” He explains that the government has been praised by some in the international community for its hospitality to Syrians and for the freedoms it grants them. Another Sudanese activist using the pseudonym Maryam A. agrees with Noaman, explaining that “the Syrian crisis is under the spotlight right now and, therefore, Sudan wants to look good on an international level as a supporter of the Syrian people, in hopes that the [Darfur] sanctions will be eased eventually.”

The Sudanese government has long been criticized for neglecting internally displaced refugees in Darfur and other regions in the country. Providing these rights to Syrians is an attempt to exhibit to its citizens and the international community that Sudan is acting in good faith to protect the rights of at least some refugees.

When I asked Usamah Mohamed about the Sudanese reaction to the growing Syrian presence in Sudan, he answered that “it’s been a mixed bag. There’s a certain sense of welcoming hospitality, but a growing sentiment of xenophobia is also present. On social media, Sudanese [citizens] often complain of the economic cost against which hosting such large number of refugees may affect their already hard lives.”

There has been a debate in Sudanese media on whether it’s fair to offer Syrians free services such as health insurance. According to Maryam, many are unhappy about this and argue that “the subsidized medication these refugees are getting is part of a system Sudanese citizens have been paying for, and that’s unfair.” Usamah pointed out that the non-democratic government did not consult its citizens on the decision to receive Syrians, and “as long as citizens feel disenfranchised, they would not welcome their government’s acts of charity toward foreigners. But to give credit where it’s due, most ordinary people are welcoming of Syrians.”

In 2016, the��, compared to , which hosted a comparable population of 100,000 Syrian refugees in the same year. It is worth noting that most Syrians in Sudan are not designated by the Sudanese government as refugees but more like residents with a set of legal rights. This amount may help improve the country’s capacity to aid refugees, but more can be done. , most of them coming from neighboring African countries.

The story of Sudan, a poor country hosting millions of refugees when its own economic conditions are dire, is in fact a common one. The UNHCR found that and found shelter in poor or middle-income countries. While much attention has been given to the influx of refugees to Europe, efforts to help low and middle-income countries improve their capacity to aid refugees can go a long way. Other countries can learn from the Sudanese experience that illustrates how granting more freedoms for refugees to legally live, study and work can be empowering and can yield great results even in country with its own troubled past.

*[Young Professionals in Foreign Policy is a of 51�Թ�. This article was updated on November 1, 2017, at 22:08 GMT.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51�Թ�’s editorial policy.

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Since April 2017,����has taken over 1,600 lives and infected more than 250,000 people in Yemen.����of those infected are children.

The conflict in Yemen has been ongoing for two years. Why did this cholera epidemic break out now? While it is difficult to pinpoint a single explanatory factor, the increased fragility of governance has led to the near collapse of the country’s already fragile water, sanitation and health systems. Another contributing risk factor is ��that��has left two-thirds of the population food insecure. Aid and are��stepping��up their responses in an attempt to contain the cholera epidemic. However, unless the conflict de-escalates and governance improves, Yemen remains at risk of facing recurring health crises.

In 2015, the Houthi rebel group allied with deposed President Ali Abdullah Saleh and took over the capital city of Sanaa, causing a��near collapse of government. This prompted a military��, the United Arab Emirates and eight Arab allies, which aims to reinstate an internationally recognized government led by President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi. What the Saudi-led coalition hoped would be a swift military victory turned into a prolonged quagmire with severe humanitarian consequences.

Today, more than two-thirds of the Yemeni population��. Across the country, waste collection services have stopped since the war began in 2015, and unpaid public salaries further challenge any attempts to resume them. Municipal workers in��,��for example, have not received their wages for months and decided to go on strike in May 2017. Even though the strike only lasted for a week, the consequences were dire, leaving the city filled with trash, with��residents fearful of the health hazards of uncollected garbage.

The wage crisis has also impacted the health workers:��Over 30,000 of them have ��for 10��months. They��are also operating on very limited capacity; less than 45% of Yemen’s health facilities and hospitals are open. Many facilities were��. With limited resources, hospitals cannot separate cholera patients from other patients, and it is possible that more people will����while in the hospital for other treatments.

The task of supporting access to health care, water and sanitation in Yemen presents two major challenges. The first relates to resolving unpaid salaries in the absence of a well-functioning central bank. , which is responsible for��paying��the salaries of over 1.2 million public employees, was one of the last operational state institutions in the country. In an effort to weaken the Houthi rebels, the Hadi government��decided��to in September 2016. This decision politicized the bank and rendered it dysfunctional. Millions of public employees have not received their full salaries since summer 2016, and the millions of Yemenis who are dependent on these salaries no longer have a sustainable source of income.

The second challenge stems from the fragmentation of authority into multiple spheres of influence, which has made service delivery more difficult. International and regional aid agencies have relatively better access to Aden and the southern governorates as they fall under the��authority��of the internationally recognized . But aid is harder to deliver in Sanaa, and many northern governorates controlled by the Houthis that face an ongoing .

Delivering aid to the Houthi-controlled areas remains an important objective, as��half��the suspected cholera cases are reported from four . As a rebel group, the Houthis govern by providing — or����— security and basic services. While they face pressure from local communities to provide services, the Houthis have a bigger incentive to allocate funds to support their fighters rather than invest in health care or basic services.

In practice, cholera is relatively easy to treat with����to compensate for the quick loss of fluids that can be fatal; a rehydration IV can save a patient’s life. Yet in reality, there are many obstacles to delivering medicine to both government and rebel-held areas in Yemen. Further, early detection and diagnosis are difficult as infected patients may����symptoms until their condition worsens and they face a small window of time to seek out medical help.

In order to effectively respond to the emergency in Yemen, relief agencies require both access to the country’s most affected populations and additional funds. The in June 2017��called��an increase of access to Sanaa’s airport and the rebuilding of destroyed cranes at the port of Hodeida where Yemen receives 80% of its food, goods and humanitarian assistance. Humanitarian agencies have requested $2.1 billion to��cover��, however, only 15% of that amount has been funded.

Preventing cholera and other diseases is not a purely technical mission. It is inherently a political one because it relates to questions of governance, authority and service provision. The Saudi-led coalition, the Houthi-Saleh camp and all warring factions must heed the��calls��of the , to reach a cessation of hostilities and resume political negotiations. The sooner the war ends, the sooner Yemenis can work to strengthen good governance and put an end to hunger and disease.

*[Young Professionals in Foreign Policy is a partner institution of 51�Թ�.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51�Թ�’s editorial policy.

Photo Credit:����/

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