Sudanese Begin Laying the First Bricks to Rebuild War-Torn Khartoum

Sudan Events – Agencies

KHARTOUM (AFP) – In the streets of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, construction workers clear rubble from homes riddled with bullet holes, remove fallen trees, and repair severed power lines in the first push toward reconstruction since the war erupted more than two years ago.

Rebuilding Begins

The battles between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which broke out in April 2023, left the capital in ruins and transformed it into a ghost city. But reconstruction efforts—spearheaded by government agencies and volunteer youth groups—have now begun, repairing hospitals, schools, and water and electricity networks.

“We are working to rehabilitate the state’s infrastructure,” said volunteer Mustafa Awad.

Once a bustling metropolis of nine million people, Khartoum’s skyline is now jagged with collapsed buildings.

Power poles lean dangerously or lie strewn across the streets. Burned-out cars, stripped of their parts, remain welded to the melted asphalt. AFP correspondents observed entire apartment complexes whose outer walls had been blown away by fighting.

Inside soot-stained buildings, dangers still lurk as authorities slowly work to clear tens of thousands of unexploded ordnances left behind by fighters. The United Nations has warned that Khartoum is “heavily contaminated with unexploded ordnance,” revealing this month that landmines had been found across the city.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 13 million, and pushed Sudan into the world’s worst hunger and displacement crisis.

A Proud National Capital

Until March, when the army pushed RSF fighters out of Khartoum, the city—emptied of four million residents—remained a battlefield.

Before retreating, the RSF dismantled entire infrastructure systems, looting everything from medical equipment and water pumps to copper wiring.

“Usually in war zones, you see widespread destruction… but rarely do you see what happened in Khartoum,” said UN humanitarian coordinator Luca Renda. “Every cable was stripped from homes, every pipe destroyed,” he added, describing a systematic looting of both large and small items.

Today, the electricity and water systems remain among the city’s toughest challenges. Mohamed Al-Bashir, head of electricity services in East Khartoum, said there was “massive damage” to key transformer stations. “Some power stations were completely destroyed,” he said, noting that the RSF had specifically targeted transformer oil and copper cables.

With vast areas of the capital still in darkness and reliable water supplies absent, cholera swept through the city this summer. Health officials reported as many as 1,500 new cases per day in June, according to the United Nations.

During his first visit to Khartoum last month, Sudanese Prime Minister Kamal Idris pledged a broad reconstruction effort, declaring: “Khartoum will return as a proud national capital.” The government has already begun planning its move back from the temporary seat in Port Sudan, even as the war rages on in other parts of the country.

Outlines of Reconstruction

On Tuesday, authorities announced that central Khartoum—the devastated business and government hub that saw the fiercest battles—would be cleared and redesigned.

The United Nations estimates that restoring basic services in the capital will cost around $350 million, while fully rebuilding Khartoum will take “years and several billion dollars,” Renda said.

Despite these challenges, hundreds of people have thrown themselves into the grueling reconstruction effort. Worker Mohamed Al-Sir explained: “We’ve faced challenges like shortages of raw materials—especially infrastructure supplies, medical equipment, and iron. But the market has started to recover somewhat.”

In central Khartoum, a worker with mud-stained hands stacked bricks beside a crumbling building. AFP reporters accompanied crews reinstalling water pipes in a once-inhabited home, while others hauled away broken concrete and twisted metal in wheelbarrows. On a road that had once been a frontline, one man repaired a streetlight while others lifted a fallen tree into a truck.

The United Nations expects up to two million people to return to Khartoum by year’s end. Those who have already returned—estimated in the tens of thousands—say life remains difficult, but there are glimmers of hope.

“Honestly, living conditions have improved. There is greater stability now, and real services are coming back—like water, electricity, and even basic medical care,” said returnee Ali Mohamed.