In the year since the Sudanese army recaptured Khartoum from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group, which had seized the capital at the start of the civil war in 2023, more than 2 million of the 5 million displaced residents have returned. However, despite government promises of a swift restoration of normal life after the military victory, the city remains crippled by power outages, damaged infrastructure, and unpaid salaries. Many returnees say they came back only as a last resort, fleeing a crackdown on refugees in neighboring Egypt.
Government Orders and Returnee Stories
The government, which had relocated ministries and administrative offices to the coastal city of Port Sudan, has ordered civil servants to resume work in Khartoum. Students who had been attending online classes and taking exams at temporary centers in other cities or abroad have been told to return to classrooms. Nisreen Altayeb, who fled to Egypt with her family, decided to return after a crackdown on refugees there that began around the start of the year. “We left Sudan in the first place because of the lack of security, but then we started finding the same thing. It wasn’t safe in Egypt,” Altayeb said. She is trying to resume her work as a schoolteacher, but like many government employees, she has not been paid even her meager salary.
Limited Recovery and Infrastructure Challenges
Signs of recovery have been concentrated in Omdurman, Khartoum’s sister city across the White Nile, where the army had maintained partial control. Khartoum proper and Bahri city to the north remain largely without electricity and other services. The RSF has continued targeting power stations and military installations around Khartoum with drone strikes, hindering recovery efforts. Altayeb Saadeldin, spokesman for the Khartoum state government, said those attacks meant the capital’s electricity was operating at only one-third of its prewar capacity. “That third is being distributed so we can provide people for 8 hours a day,” he said.
The University of Khartoum, located in the most damaged part of the city, has told students they must return for in-person exams and classes, but labs, lecture halls, and dormitories remain damaged by the war. “The city needs work just like the university needs work,” said student Megdad Kammal. University officials say rehabilitation is ongoing ahead of the new semester later this year.
Small Business Struggles
Small business owners have also faced pressure to reopen, particularly in Khartoum’s vital Souq Al-Arabi, a sprawling market in the city center that became a battle zone riddled with land mines during the RSF retreat. While authorities have started collecting taxes and other fees, many shopkeepers complain they still lack access to basic services such as power. “Our income is very low right now. They need to help us to come back, to encourage us to come back,” said Mohamed Abdelbasit, who owns a print shop, arguing that tax collection should be postponed to help shopkeepers cover their costs. Saadeldin responded that the state is providing postponements as needed, but that the resource-starved state also needs revenue to manage basic services such as safety and the sewage system.
