{"id":53197,"date":"2025-08-22T00:19:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T21:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=53197"},"modified":"2025-08-22T00:19:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T21:19:18","slug":"sudanese-begin-laying-the-first-bricks-to-rebuild-war-torn-khartoum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/22\/sudanese-begin-laying-the-first-bricks-to-rebuild-war-torn-khartoum\/","title":{"rendered":"Sudanese Begin Laying the First Bricks to Rebuild War-Torn Khartoum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sudan Events \u2013 Agencies<\/strong><\/p>\n

KHARTOUM (AFP) \u2013 In the streets of Sudan\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Rebuilding Begins<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2014spearheaded by government agencies and volunteer youth groups\u2014have now begun, repairing hospitals, schools, and water and electricity networks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working to rehabilitate the state\u2019s infrastructure,\u201d said volunteer Mustafa Awad.<\/p>\n

Once a bustling metropolis of nine million people, Khartoum\u2019s skyline is now jagged with collapsed buildings.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cheavily contaminated with unexploded ordnance,\u201d revealing this month that landmines had been found across the city.<\/p>\n

The war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 13 million, and pushed Sudan into the world\u2019s worst hunger and displacement crisis.<\/p>\n

A Proud National Capital<\/strong><\/p>\n

Until March, when the army pushed RSF fighters out of Khartoum, the city\u2014emptied of four million residents\u2014remained a battlefield.<\/p>\n

Before retreating, the RSF dismantled entire infrastructure systems, looting everything from medical equipment and water pumps to copper wiring.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually in war zones, you see widespread destruction\u2026 but rarely do you see what happened in Khartoum,\u201d said UN humanitarian coordinator Luca Renda. \u201cEvery cable was stripped from homes, every pipe destroyed,\u201d he added, describing a systematic looting of both large and small items.<\/p>\n

Today, the electricity and water systems remain among the city\u2019s toughest challenges. Mohamed Al-Bashir, head of electricity services in East Khartoum, said there was \u201cmassive damage\u201d to key transformer stations. \u201cSome power stations were completely destroyed,\u201d he said, noting that the RSF had specifically targeted transformer oil and copper cables.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

During his first visit to Khartoum last month, Sudanese Prime Minister Kamal Idris pledged a broad reconstruction effort, declaring: \u201cKhartoum will return as a proud national capital.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Outlines of Reconstruction<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, authorities announced that central Khartoum\u2014the devastated business and government hub that saw the fiercest battles\u2014would be cleared and redesigned.<\/p>\n

The United Nations estimates that restoring basic services in the capital will cost around $350 million, while fully rebuilding Khartoum will take \u201cyears and several billion dollars,\u201d Renda said.<\/p>\n

Despite these challenges, hundreds of people have thrown themselves into the grueling reconstruction effort. Worker Mohamed Al-Sir explained: \u201cWe\u2019ve faced challenges like shortages of raw materials\u2014especially infrastructure supplies, medical equipment, and iron. But the market has started to recover somewhat.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The United Nations expects up to two million people to return to Khartoum by year\u2019s end. Those who have already returned\u2014estimated in the tens of thousands\u2014say life remains difficult, but there are glimmers of hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, living conditions have improved. There is greater stability now, and real services are coming back\u2014like water, electricity, and even basic medical care,\u201d said returnee Ali Mohamed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sudan Events \u2013 Agencies KHARTOUM (AFP) \u2013 In the streets of Sudan\u2019s 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 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53199,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53197\/revisions\/53199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}