Saudi Arabia extends residency duration for Sudanese on Umrah visas

Saudi Arabia announced on Thursday it has begun extending the duration of Umrah visas for Sudanese pilgrims who are in the Kingdom and unable to return home due to the ongoing conflict, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

The Kingdom also launched the “Hosting Sudanese Umrah Performers” service on the e-portal of the interior ministry to allow citizens and residents in the Kingdom to host the Sudanese on Umrah visas.

The online service launched allows relatives or friends of the Sudanese on Umrah visas in the Kingdom as well as Saudi citizens to switch the Umrah visa into a visitor’s visa.

Details and conditions of changing the visa are available on the Absher platform, SPA reported.

Those who wish to change the visa will be exempted from the financial fees the first time they do so.

The decisions are based on the directives of King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, SPA added.

More than 750 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced in the fighting that began on April 15 between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The violence has prompted hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes, with the number of people internally displaced within Sudan more than doubling in a week to more than 700,000, the UN’s migration agency said.

The United Nations estimates that 5 million additional people will need emergency assistance inside Sudan while 860,000 are expected to flee to neighboring states that were already in crisis at a time when rich countries have cut back on aid.