In the sandy courtyard of a school-turned-shelter in northern Sudan, two children idly pass a football back and forth. Around them, dozens of adults wait, trapped between a war and a border.

The plight of Egyptian truck drivers stranded on the country’s border with Sudan has persisted for almost three months, a crisis reportedly marred by Egypt’s “official indifference” and the bureaucracy of the Sudanese side, resulting in the death of at least 15 truckers.

With Sudan’s conflict now at the 100-day mark, advocacy groups are calling on Sudan’s neighbor Egypt to ease entry requirements for refugees, saying displaced Sudanese face a dire situation.

Egypt’s recent decision to require all Sudanese people entering the country to obtain a visa beforehand has put those escaping the ongoing war in Sudan in peril, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday.

The Israeli army has issued new, stricter instructions to its members serving at the border with Egypt to fire at any Egyptian soldier behaving suspiciously following this month’s deadly shooting which left three Israeli troops killed.

Egypt has announced a new policy requiring all citizens of neighbouring Sudan to obtain visas before crossing the border as a United States and Saudi Arabia-brokered ceasefire took effect in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

Three Israeli soldiers were killed on Saturday in a rare exchange of fire involving an Egyptian security officer near the border between the two countries.

The ongoing war in Sudan has caused tens of thousands of civilians to flee to neighbouring countries. Most of them made their way to Egypt, which allowed women, children and the elderly to cross at a snail’s pace, but many men were turned back for visas.

In an effort to boost tourism, Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced on Monday, 27 March, that it will be ​​issuing a multiple-entry visa for a period of five years, with a USD 700 (EGP 21,000) fee, for citizens of 180 countries.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu assured Egypt on Monday that the maritime jurisdiction agreement concluded between Turkey and the Tripoli government in Libya “is not against Egypt’s interests,” the official Turkish Anadolu news agency quoted the minister on Monday.