Marhaba, 

This is the 45th issue of Atar English magazine, from Sudan Facts Center for Journalism. It will be coming to you on Monday, every two weeks. 

Throughout this issue, Atar records a city that is coming back without having recovered. Khartoum is no longer the battlefront it was during the peak of the conflict, but it is not a living city either. Through seven field stories and one reader survey, it becomes clear that there is not one story of return, but a disjointed and irregular process that is driven by survival rather than choice, and by need rather than stability.

The return of close to 1.4 million displaced persons to Khartoum State, as indicated by displacement figures in this issue, could indicate that there is progress. Government statements and the resumption of activities by ministries through emergency frameworks, the revival of markets with caution, the rehabilitation of hospitals, and the state’s declaration of a “Year of Education” all seem to indicate so. However, Atar’s observations throughout this issue indicate that there is a contradiction, people are returning to a city that cannot yet support them.

In the streets of Khartoum, the presence of the police is the most evident manifestation of the return of the state. Ministries are operating in a partial manner, identity document offices are saturated, and public transportation is back in operation, but in a distorted manner. There are more cars than passengers in some terminals, routes are broken up, prices are negotiated in a makeshift manner, and drivers are confronted with a complex of checkpoints, receipts, and unofficial payments. There is mobility, but it is expensive, irregular, and unequal. 

Markets are also taking their first breaths, but in a weak manner. Starting from Souq al Arabi to Kalakla al Laffa, vendors open their shops among the rubble, looting wounds, and the lack of purchasing power. The prices of basic commodities may seem normal in some neighborhood markets, but the price of gold in gold shops, wholesale markets, and main markets paint a tougher picture. There is little demand, capital is gone, and many vendors come back to scout the ground rather than to stay and rebuild. A market without customers is not a sign of recovery, it is a sign of resilience.

Water and electricity, the basics of city life, are still the most crucial hindrances to effective return. All 13 water production stations were affected during the war, and although some stations have been reopened, the lack of transmission lines and stolen transformers means that water does not reach whole neighborhoods, especially in southern Khartoum. The country’s electricity infrastructure was systematically looted, with cables unearthed from the ground, transformers disassembled, and losses estimated at nearly 468 million dollars. With a demand of 14,000 transformers, only 400 have been received. In most areas, the electricity supply is intermittent or simply absent, rendering water pumping, healthcare, education, and living impractical. The demand for return, without electricity, is empty.

The education sector is where the contrast between rhetoric and reality is perhaps most pronounced. Although officials talk about a complete return to school, this is the case for only a small percentage of schools. Secondary school students have been merged into less than half of the total number of schools because of low enrollment. The number of teachers who are absent is over 50 percent in most schools, and the cost burden on parents has increased in both public and private schools. Enrollment in the central neighborhoods is in single digits. Education, the reason for which most families left Khartoum, is one of the most powerful deterrents to return.

The healthcare sector also has a similar story. Hospitals are gradually reopening, depending more on population density than any administrative plan. Health facilities in southern Khartoum experience relative improvements, but those in the central and eastern areas are left behind. Stolen equipment, missing diagnostic equipment, personnel movement, and security concerns remain challenges in healthcare. Health centers function with volunteers, solar power, and little equipment. Medicines are also back, but shortages of drugs remain a problem. Trust in the healthcare system, like the system itself, is still weak.

Atar’s reader survey supports these results from a different perspective. Most of the respondents have recently returned, and most of them returned to their original homes, but at a high personal cost. Most of the respondents could not return to their jobs and now depend on their families for support. Almost all of them had to repair their homes, and most of them spent more than a million Sudanese pounds. Water is more reliable than electricity, security is still irregular, and return is possible, but difficult. This is not voluntary return in the true sense of the word, but return out of necessity, tiredness, and lack of alternatives.

These accounts, in total, contradict the one-dimensional story of post-war recovery. Khartoum is no longer emptying out, but it is also not healing in a balanced way. Return is taking place without the conditions that make life worth living. The state is present, but its strength is limited.

Issue 45 is not an argument against return. It is an argument against illusion. Sustainable return is not just a matter of statements, but of investment in electricity, water, schools, hospitals, and economic life, as well as good governance and protection for those who return.

The challenge that Khartoum faces today is not whether people can return. Many have already. The challenge is whether the city, and those who run it, are ready to meet them halfway.

The title references Sudan Notes and Records, a colonial archive, while affirming Atar’s commitment to documentation as a public record shaped from within, not imposed from above.

Atar Editorial Team