Sudanese Government Returns to Khartoum After RSF Drove It Out in 2023

Sudan’s government has formally returned to Khartoum after nearly three years of operating from Port Sudan following the outbreak of war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023.

“Army-aligned government returns to the capital, which was quickly overrun by the RSF in the early days of war in 2023”

Al Jazeera

Officials, including Prime Minister Kamil/Kamel Idris, described the move as a turning point and dubbed the administration the Government of Hope, pledging to rebuild services and institutions as the capital begins to tentatively re-open after the army retook the city last March.

Al Jazeera

Sources report the return as gradual, with cabinet meetings already held in Khartoum and public life restarting in some areas as security allows.

The return follows an exodus of central government bodies to Port Sudan in April 2023 amid fierce fighting that caused widescale damage to institutions and services.

Reports say the Sovereign Council, the Council of Ministers and several ministries were moved as security deteriorated.

Al-Jazeera Net

The army later declared Khartoum State cleared of RSF forces in May 2025, enabling a cautious restoration of public life.

International and local reporting stresses the scale of destruction and displacement: tens of thousands killed, millions displaced, and government buildings and public services left in ruins.

Despite reports of relative calm in parts of Khartoum, humanitarian and security challenges remain acute.

“KHARTOUM, Sudan/ ISTANBUL Sudan’s government officially returned to the capital Khartoum on Sunday for the first time since the outbreak of war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023, Prime Minister Kamel Idris said”

Anadolu Ajansı

UN teams found el-Fasher in North Darfur largely deserted and described it as a "crime scene."

Survivors report ethnically motivated killings and mass detentions.

The RSF has continued drone strikes targeting infrastructure.

Large numbers have returned to Khartoum since the army retook the city, but returnees frequently encountered destroyed homes and barely functioning services.

Returnees also found makeshift graves that authorities are now exhuming, and the full death toll in the capital remains unknown.

The geography of control and the contested nature of claims remain central to reporting, with outlets noting the RSF's advances in Darfur and Kordofan and the SAF's counterclaims of battlefield successes that are sometimes unverified.

Al Jazeera reproduces SAF claims that air and ground operations destroyed about 240 combat vehicles, killed hundreds of RSF fighters and drove RSF forces from wide areas, but it notes the RSF did not immediately respond and the claims could not be independently verified.

Arab News PK

Middle East Eye highlights allegations of RSF backing by foreign states and accuses the RSF of controlling five Darfur states, underscoring divergent emphases between investigative and rights-oriented reporting and state-focused or reconstruction narratives.