Sudan: Cabinet Returns to Khartoum

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.

Speaking to a crowd upon his arrival from Port Sudan, where the government had been operating as a temporary capital since the conflict began, Idris described the move as a turning point for the country.

“Today we return, and with us returns a government of hope to the national capital,” he said. “We promise improved services and a better life for our people.”

Idris pledged to enhance health and education services, rebuild hospitals and rehabilitate schools and universities, placing particular emphasis on the University of Khartoum. He also vowed to improve security and living conditions for citizens.

The prime minister said the government has submitted the 2026 state budget without imposing additional financial burdens on the public, adding that it aims to reduce inflation to 70%.

According to the latest official figures released in November, inflation stood at 74.2%.

Idris said the budget also seeks to raise gross domestic product growth to 10% and curb parallel market exchange rates as part of efforts to stabilize the economy.

He described the current year as “a year of peace,” calling it “the peace of the brave and the victorious.”

On May 21, the Sudanese army announced it had regained full control of Khartoum, declaring the capital free of the RSF following battles in the Salha area south of the city.

Last July, the chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, issued a decree forming a national committee to prepare Khartoum for the urgent return of federal institutions and residents according to Anadolu.

Of Sudan’s 18 states, the RSF controls all five states of the Darfur region in the west, except for some northern parts of North Darfur that remain under army control. The army, meanwhile, holds most areas of the remaining 13 states in the south, north, east, and center, including the capital Khartoum.

Sudan’s humanitarian crisis has worsened since the war between the army and the RSF erupted in April 2023 over a dispute on unifying the military establishment, killing tens of thousands and displacing millions.

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150 Women Raped in North Darfur – NGO

More than 150 Sudanese women were subjected to rape and sexual harassment while fleeing the city of El-Fasher in North Darfur, a local civil group said Friday.

Adam Regal, a spokesman for the General Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees in Darfur, told the Sudan Tribune that militants from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) chased fleeing civilians along escape routes, detaining some in the area of Qarni, where thousands of stranded people remain trapped, including children separated from their families.

He said more than 1,300 people have been injured by gunfire, while over 1,210 children are suffering from malnutrition, and 700 elderly individuals are in critical health conditions.

Regal added that the number of survivors who managed to reach Tawila town, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) west of El-Fasher, has exceeded 15,000, many of whom are in poor health due to injuries and violence they suffered during their escape.

He urged international and humanitarian organizations to provide life-saving medicine, food, safe water sources, shelter materials, sanitation facilities, psychological support and safe spaces for children traumatized by the horrific scenes they witnessed along the way.

Tawila, which has already received thousands of displaced civilians in recent months, is now hosting more than 1 million internally displaced persons, Regal said, warning that the situation requires urgent humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs.

The RSF captured El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, on Oct. 26 and committed massacres against civilians, according to local and international organizations, amid warnings that the assault could entrench the geographical partition of Sudan.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimated that more than 81,000 people have been displaced from El-Fasher and its surroundings since the RSF takeover.

Since April 15, 2023, the Sudanese army and the RSF have been locked in a war that regional and international mediations have failed to end. The conflict has killed thousands of people and displaced millions of others according to Anadolu.

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