Sudanese Prime Minister Kamil Idris has announced the government’s return to the capital, seven months after he was named as head of a military-backed government based in the wartime capital of Port Sudan.
The move signals an attempt by Mr Idris to restore a semblance of normality to a sprawling capital that has suffered widespread destruction, with state institutions, ministries and private property in ruins after nearly two years of fighting there between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, civil war enemies since April 2023.
The army and allied militias drove the RSF out in March last year but only Omdurman – one of three cities that make up the capital's greater region – has made progress towards normality. The other two – Khartoum and Bahri – remain mostly deserted and without adequate basic services.
The UN says 1.2 million people had returned to the capital between March and October last year. However, they arrived back to share the suffering of those who had endured the fighting in the capital, poor and dangerous living conditions as well as abuses by combatants and criminal gangs.
All of the capital's three cities suffer daily power outages that last for up to eight hours. Disease is rampant in some parts and security is fragile. Many hospitals and schools have been destroyed and residents bitterly complain of exorbitant food and fuel prices.
“Today, we return, and the 'government of hope' returns to the national capital,” Mr Idris told reporters in Khartoum on Sunday. “2026 will be a year of peace. We will expand public health services, rebuild hospitals and medical centres.
“We promise to enhance educational infrastructure, including schools and universities,” added Mr Idris, whose government has pursued a gradual return to Khartoum since the army recaptured it last year.
Mr Idris also said the government was committed to improving electricity, water and sanitation services, as well as ensuring citizen welfare and security.
In recent months, his administration resumed some cabinet meetings in Khartoum and launched reconstruction initiatives to restore the capital.
"We returned home from Egypt after we ran out of money, but we came back to a reality that's not an better," said Abdel Rahim Al Sheikh, who left Omdurman with his family in July 2023 and returned last August.
"Prices are sky high, the environment is harmful and there are some signs of poor security on the streets. Life is tough, but at least we are home."
Mr Idris became Sudan's first prime minister since January 2022, when army chief and Sudan's de facto leader, Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, named him to the position in May 2025. His predecessor is Abdalla Hamdok, who briefly returned to office after the ouster of his civilian-led transitional government in a military coup in October 2021.
Top civil servants in ministries ran the country's day-to-day affairs between January 2022 and June 2025 when Mr Idris named his government.
Gen Al Burhan fled the capital in August 2023 after months of taking refuge inside the armed forces headquarters, then besieged by the RSF. He and top army generals began operating in Port Sudan on the Red Sea in October that year.
The war in Sudan started when tension between Gen Al Burhan and RSF commander Gen Mohamed Dagalo over the future of the armed forces and the paramilitary in a democratic Sudan erupted into fighting. The conflict quickly engulfed the capital before it spread into most of the vast Afro-Arab nation.
Nearly three years into the war, tens of thousands have been killed, more than 12 million displaced and the country is suffering one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, with nearly half the population - 25 million - facing hunger.
The army now controls the capital as well as the country's eastern, central and northern regions while the RSF controls Darfur - a region roughly the size of France - and parts of neighbouring Kordofan, where the fighting has shifted since the paramilitary seized the army's last stronghold in Darfur.
International calls for a humanitarian truce have failed so far, and both warring sides are accused of war crimes.
Gen Al Burhan has repeatedly vowed to continue fighting until the RSF is vanquished or surrenders. Gen Dagalo, on the other hand, seems more open to a negotiated settlement of the conflict, but it's unlikely he would be willing to relinquish control of areas under his control. The RSF has its own government based in the Darfur city of Nyala.
Al Shafie Ahmed contributed to this report from Kampala, Uganda.
