2.7 Million Return to Khartoum Amid Shortages

About 2.7 million people have returned to Khartoum since Sudan’s army recaptured the capital, after roughly four million fled when war began in 2023. Many returnees are struggling with days-long outages of electricity and water, scarce medicine and jobs, and a city still marked by extensive destruction; some, including businessman Emad Khaled, are sending family members back abroad. The army has reopened the airport and repaired some infrastructure, but fighting continues elsewhere in Sudan, and the United Nations had deemed only 1 percent of Khartoum safe by June, with unexploded ordnance killing and injuring children. Many returnees came from Egypt, where Sudanese refugees faced high living costs and other hardships, while residents with the means to do so have largely stayed away.