Sudan: 2.7 million people have returned to Khartoum, a capital still without water or electricity

They have returned home to discover a city that no longer functions. According to a report published on September 27, 2026, by Africanews, 2.7 million people have returned to Khartoum since the Sudanese capital was recaptured by the army in 2025, out of the four million residents who had fled after the war began in 2023. About 500,000 of them have returned from neighboring Egypt.

Returns faster than reconstruction

The return has happened faster than the restoration of basic services. Electricity and water, reports Africanews, can be missing for several days in a row. Medicines, when available, are bought at unstable prices: "every day, it's a different price," summarizes Imam Babiker, a 34-year-old teacher quoted by the media outlet.

The healthcare system illustrates both resourcefulness and exhaustion. Sudanese charities have rebuilt hospitals, some of which are considered to be in better condition than before the war by medical staff, according to Africanews. But supplies are not keeping up: "we have to ask patients to buy their own medicines," explains Dr. Haifa Omar.

For some families, the decision to return has proven to be a mistake. "Bringing my family back here was a mistake," admits Emad Khaled, a 43-year-old merchant, to the pan-African media outlet.

Security remains fragile

The most telling figure concerns security: in June, only 1% of Khartoum was considered safe by the United Nations, reports Africanews. The army now controls the capital, while fighting against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continues elsewhere in the country, notably in Darfur, Kordofan, and Blue Nile.

What these returns say about Sudan

The displacement of four million people from a single city gives the measure of a conflict whose scale remains largely under-reported outside the continent. And the return of 2.7 million of them to a capital deprived of water, electricity, and medicine is not a sign that peace has returned: it is the choice of families who preferred familiar ruins to an exile with no horizon.

The question now posed to African institutions and international donors is that of civilian reconstruction—networks, hospitals, schools—in a country where the war continues on other fronts. The Sudanese, for their part, have started without waiting: it is their own charitable organizations that have gotten some of Khartoum's hospitals back on their feet.