In 2023, an army-aligned government returned to the capital, quickly captured by the RSF in the early days of the war.
Sudan’s Prime Minister Kamil Idris has announced the government’s return to Khartoum after nearly three years of operating from the wartime capital, Port Sudan.
In the early days of the civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023, the military-aligned government fled the capital, which was quickly captured by rival forces.
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Since 2008, the government has pursued a gradual return to Khartoum The army recaptured City last March.
“Today, we return and the Asha government returns to the national capital,” Idris told reporters on Sunday in Khartoum, which has been ravaged by war between the SAF and the RSF.
“We promise you better services, better healthcare and reconstruction of hospitals, development of education services … and improvement of electricity, water and sanitation services,” he said.
For nearly two years, Sudan’s capital – comprising the three cities of Khartoum, Omdurman and Khartoum North (Bahri) – was an active battleground.
The entire area was besieged, rival soldiers fired artillery across the Nile, and millions of people were displaced from the city.
Between March and October, 1.2 million people returned to Khartoum, according to the United Nations.
Many found the city with barely functioning services, their homes destroyed, and makeshift cemeteries pockmarked by authorities now evacuating the area.
The war is estimated to have killed thousands in the capital alone, but the full toll is unknown, as many families have been forced to bury their dead in makeshift graves.
According to the UN, rehabilitation of the capital’s essential infrastructure will cost about $350 million.
In recent months, the government has held some cabinet meetings in Khartoum and begun reconstruction efforts.
Although the RSF has carried out drone attacks, particularly on infrastructure, the city has seen relative calm.
Army attacked RSF targets
Battles take place elsewhere in the vast country.
South of Khartoum, the RSF has pushed out of the Kordofan region, after withdrawing troops from its last stronghold in Darfur last year.
Sudan’s military said on Friday it had inflicted heavy losses on the RSF during a series of air and ground operations last week in the Darfur and Kordofan regions.
In a statement, the army said its forces attacked RSF positions, destroying around 240 combat vehicles and killing hundreds of fighters.
It added that ground forces had succeeded in pushing RSF fighters out of large areas in both Darfur and Kordofan, adding that operations were ongoing to pursue remaining elements.
RSF did not immediately comment on the Army’s statement and could not independently verify the information shared by the Army.
The conflict has displaced 11 million people displaced internally and across borders, and created the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis.
Recently, the UN described Al-Fasher in North Darfur as a “crime scene” after the RSF gained access to the largely deserted town for the first time since its capture following mass atrocities in October.
After weeks of negotiations, international aid workers visited Al-Fashar, leaving few people left in what was once a densely populated city with a large displaced population.
More than 100,000 residents fled el-Fashar for their lives after the RSF took control on October 26 after an 18-month siege, with survivors reporting ethnically motivated mass killings and widespread arrests.
SAF soldiers are also alleged to have been tortured during the brutal war.