On a sweltering Monday morning at Cairo's main railway station, hundreds of Sudanese families stood waiting, with bags piled at their feet and children in tow, to board a train bound for a homeland shattered by two years of war.

The war is not yet over, but with the army having regained control of key areas and life in Egypt often hard, many refugees have decided now is the time to head home.

"It's an indescribable feeling," said Khadija Mohamed Ali, 45, seated inside one of the train's ageing carriages, her five daughters lined beside her.

"I'm happy that I'll see my neighbours again -- my family, my street," she told AFP ahead of her return to the capital Khartoum, still reeling from a conflict that has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 14 million.

She was among the second group of refugees travelling under Egypt's voluntary return programme, which offers free transportation from Cairo to Khartoum, more than 2,000 kilometres away by train and bus.

The first convoy left a week earlier.

The programme is a joint effort between the Egyptian National Railways and Sudan's state-owned arms company Defence Industries System, which is covering the full cost of the........

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