War-displaced Sudanese return to shattered Khartoum eager to rebuild lives, homes
Khartoum: All that remains of Afaf al-Tayeb’s home in Sudan’s Khartoum province is a charred, windowless structure with peeling paint — yet in June, she eagerly returned, feeling safe again for the first time since the Sudanese army said it retook the capital from the rival Rapid Support Forces.
Al-Tayeb had been displaced with her son, Mohamed al-Khedr and their family at least four times since the civil war in the North African nation broke out over two years ago. They were displaced in different areas in Khartoum, yet nothing has ever felt as comforting as their house in the Al-Qawz district of Khartoum City.
She misses the photographs of her parents and late husband, which were lost when her home was damaged by fire in March, along with all her other possessions. The loss of her home left her in tears and deep sorrow, she told The Associated Press.
The family was first displaced to the Hilaliya area, in Gezira province, taking nothing but the clothes they were wearing, until the RSF made advances in the province and forced them to return to Al-Qawz.
Al-Tayeb said RSF fighters then expelled her and her family, and they had to flee to east Khartoum, to Shendi and then Om Durman city.
“They looked very strange — indescribable — and their appearance was frightening,” she said of the RSF fighters who raided her home.
Al-Tayeb and her son are among roughly 1.2 million people who returned to Sudan between December 2024 and May this year, according to the latest estimates by the International Organisation for Migration.
The UN’s refugee agency says more than 12 million people have been forcibly displaced since the current conflict began in April 2023, with 3.2 million Sudanese seeking refuge in neighbouring countries.
The conflict has killed more than 40,000 people, pushed many to the brink of famine, and caused several disease outbreaks. Khartoum was the epicentre of fighting at the start of the war, but the army said it had recaptured the capital earlier this year, including important landmarks such as the airport and ministerial buildings. Army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan returned to the capital in March for the first time since the war began when his military-led government had fled Khartoum for the Red Sea city of Port Sudan.
Mohanad Elbalal, cofounder of Khartoum Aid Kitchen, said that in areas recaptured by the military in Khartoum province, people are returning to find their homes destroyed, neighbourhoods shattered, often with no electricity and scarce food, water and services, but they’re returning to rebuild their homes.
In Khartoum City, electric substations have been destroyed and cables have been torn from the ground.
“In some areas in the Khartoum locality, there’s been a complete dismantling of the infrastructure,” Elbalal told AP. “Hospitals have even had their beds shipped out and stolen, along with mattresses.” Of the more than 60 electricity and water facilities that have been partially or fully damaged as a result of the conflict, 16 served Khartoum, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data monitoring organisation.agencies
