Thousands of displaced Sudanese are returning to Khartoum, where destruction is widespread, explosive drones fill the skies, disease is spreading, and basic services, including electricity, water and medicine, have largely collapsed.
They are clearing rubble, repairing their homes and reopening a narrow door to hope, holding on to their land and trying to resume daily life in all its hardship and small joys.
In Kadro, a northern suburb of Khartoum Bahri about 18 kilometers from the capital, resident Al-Tayeb Mousa stands inside his shop, which he rebuilt and repaired after a long displacement that began when fighting broke out between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces in mid-April 2023.
Mousa, a man in his forties, told Asharq Al-Awsat that he moved between Sudanese cities as a displaced person, saying, “Your destroyed home is still better than rental houses in displacement cities.”
He said: “From the first shots of the war I fled to Sennar, then to Al-Damazin in the southeast for nearly two years, then to Al-Gadarif, Kassala in the east and Atbara in the north. Three months ago I returned to Bahri. It was a hard and painful period.”
“I struggled the whole time just to earn a living. Displacement is a bitter experience, but we faced it with resilience and fighting spirit,” stressed Mousa.
He continued: “After returning, we now face the threat of suicide and strategic drones, and shortages of electricity, water and medicine. But the house where we grew up, even if damaged and destroyed, is still better than a rented home in a displacement city.”
Patience and determination
Because of shelling and stray bullets in the early days of the war, Eihab Ahmed was forced to leave her home in Umbada, Omdurman, and move to Jabal Awliya in the south of Khartoum in search of safety.
Eihab said: “I used to run a small printing and photocopy shop in Souq Al-Shuhada in Omdurman, but I left it because of the war. It was looted, burned and destroyed.”
She added, “When the fighting reached Jabal Awliya, we left again and returned to northern Omdurman. When the Sudanese army retook Khartoum and security improved, I went back to my shop. I started from zero by buying a single printer and faced all the difficulties.”
“We returned amid destruction by choice to build a new life. Everything is difficult and harsh, but our hearts and memories are here,” she said.
Facing hardship
Abdel-Baqi Ismail, 50, who runs a ready-made clothing store, said, “In the first months of the war I left Khartoum and moved to Kosti in White Nile State in the south, but I recently returned to Doctors Street in Omdurman to resume my work, which had stopped because of the violence.”
He added, “I have worked in clothing sales for more than 30 years. We have managed to keep going despite major difficulties, and more than 20 stores have reopened in the area.”
He said the biggest challenge now is “the collapse of essential services, the breakdown of hospitals and health centers, the spread of disease, the high price of medicine and the rising cost of living.”
International reports
On October 21, 2025, the International Organization for Migration said an estimated 2.7 million of the more than 3.77 million people displaced from Khartoum may return despite harsh living conditions and service shortages.
Across Sudan, the organization reported that 2.6 million people returned to their home areas over the same period, nearly half of them children. That included more than two million internally displaced people and 523,844 returnees from abroad, mostly from Egypt, South Sudan and Libya.
Government assurances
Khartoum State Minister of Social Affairs Siddig Farini said the government is working to meet the needs created by the high number of returnees, including water, electricity, medicine and security.
He told Asharq Al-Awsat that about 87 shelters were set up in Khartoum to host 15,000 displaced people from Darfur and 12,000 from North, West and South Kordofan, with efforts under way to meet their needs responsibly.
He added that one of the most important decisions was assigning Sovereignty Council member Ibrahim Jaber to head the High Committee for Preparing Conditions for Citizens’ Return to Khartoum State. The committee was granted broad powers to restore essential services, including water stations, electricity supply across neighborhoods and clearing war debris, which Farini said was “at volumes greater than what we see in movies.”
Drones threaten returnees
Farini said Khartoum State has recently come under renewed drone attacks, both regular and strategic, but nonetheless “we have witnessed the return of citizens from inside and outside Sudan to their homes and neighborhoods.” He said health institutions and major hospitals are being restored, and Khartoum International Airport and strategic facilities are being rehabilitated.
He said national, regional and international organizations are working in high coordination to improve conditions for returnees. Life is slowly returning to the capital’s districts, with popular neighborhoods crowded again. In Karari, north of Omdurman, almost no homes remain empty and rents have soared.
According to Farini, social development centers have resumed their psychological support programs for war-affected groups, especially women who suffered severe violations.
He said the war is “deeply complex, with political and cultural dimensions, and heavy psychological impact. Much of it was designed to target the psyche. Its effects are long-term. This war was meant to uproot people from their land and erase their history, heritage, museums and knowledge built over centuries that shaped Sudan’s identity.”
Restoring services
Khartoum State government spokesman and Minister of Information Al-Tayeb Saad Al-Din said specialized agencies have begun initial work to clean and disinfect streets, remove bodies and handle them properly. The second phase included clearing debris and reopening roads.
He told Asharq Al-Awsat that the High Committee, led by Ibrahim Jaber, coordinated with the state government to prioritize rehabilitating power stations and major transmission lines. Residential and service areas consumed about 15,000 transformers that had to be imported.
Saad Al-Din said major repairs are under way to restore water plants and operate underground wells using solar power to provide drinking water.
Public and private health facilities suffered extensive looting and destruction, he said, but the Ministry of Health has restored services to many hospitals. Work is under way to reopen Ibrahim Malik Hospital, Al-Zira Hospital and Al-Shaab Hospital in Khartoum.
Ahmed Qasim Hospital for heart and kidney care in Bahri is partially functioning, the children’s hospital is operating and Bahri Teaching Hospital is expected to reopen soon. Haj Al-Safi Hospital and Omdurman Teaching Hospital have returned to service, as has Al-Walidayn Eye Hospital.
He added that major efforts are under way to improve sanitation and fight disease vectors. “The health situation is now very stable. Dengue fever has been contained and cholera was controlled months ago. The health sector has begun recovering.”
Saad Al-Din said road repairs have started, including filling potholes and resurfacing some streets. Bridges damaged by the war are being rehabilitated. But he said the roads sector needs “a very large amount of funding,” as Khartoum State has lost most of its revenue sources.
He said the state is working with the High Committee to find funding solutions. Other committees are focusing on restoring state authority and security, removing armed groups and armed motorcycles from the capital, expanding police presence and reopening stations and patrol units to stabilize the city.
“These are major efforts to make the environment safe for citizens to return and resume their lives,” he said.
