Qualla: Battle of Khartoum (2023–2025)

Battle of Khartoum (2023–2025): Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Flickr user Ahmed Rabea Modification: User:(WT-shared) Tiagox2, CC BY-SA 2.0. Dozens of babies and toddlers died in an orphanage in Khartoum over the first six weeks of the battle, by late May 2023. The supplies had simply run out. No bullets were involved. Their deaths, from malnutrition and circulatory failure, do not appear in most histories of the Battle of Khartoum because they were not killed in the fighting, and yet they are exactly what the fighting did. By the time Sudanese Armed Forces commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan stood on the Presidential Palace steps on 26 March 2025 and declared that "Khartoum is free," the battle had lasted nearly two years, become the longest continuous battle in Sudanese history, the longest in an African capital ever, and one of the deadliest in African history. More than 61,000 people were dead.

Image: Flickr user Ahmed Rabea Modification: User:(WT-shared) Tiagox2 | CC BY-SA 2.0

Battle of Khartoum (2023–2025): April 15, 2023

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit MartinKassemJ120, CC0. Tensions rose on 13 April 2023 when Rapid Support Forces mobilized in Khartoum and Merowe. The Sudanese Armed Forces issued an ominous statement warning of possible confrontation. On the evening of 14 April, RSF fighters assaulted Khartoum International Airport, a military base, ...

Image: MartinKassemJ120 | CC0

Battle of Khartoum (2023–2025): A Civil War That Had Been Coming

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Steve Evans from Bangalore, India, CC BY 2.0. The roots ran back at least a decade. In 2013 the Janjaweed militias, infamous for their role in the Darfur genocide of the 2000s, were reorganized into the Rapid Support Forces to fight rebels in the Nuba Mountains. Their commander was Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti. In...

Image: Steve Evans from Bangalore, India | CC BY 2.0

Battle of Khartoum (2023–2025): The Hospitals

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Petr Adam Dohnálek, CC BY-SA 3.0 cz. Of the eighty-six hospitals in the Khartoum metropolitan area, only one was operating at full capacity by 1 May 2023, just over two weeks into the battle. The Khartoum Teaching Hospital, the sister al-Shaab Teaching Hospital, and many others shut down under RSF shelling. Some wer...

Image: Petr Adam Dohnálek | CC BY-SA 3.0 cz

Battle of Khartoum (2023–2025): Ceasefires That Did Not Hold

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Fathi.hawas, CC BY-SA 3.0. There were many ceasefires. The first, for Eid al-Fitr on 21 April 2023, collapsed within hours. The Jeddah ceasefire of May 2023 worked briefly and then failed. The ceasefire extension worked better but ended on 4 June. A 24-hour ceasefire on 9 June held; the next day the fighti...

Image: Fathi.hawas | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Khartoum (2023–2025): Daily Life, If That Is the Right Phrase

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Petr Adam Dohnálek, CC BY-SA 3.0 cz. Civilians in Khartoum had to steal to survive. Water was impossible to get safely; residents boiled water from the Nile, and fetching it risked sniper fire. Decaying bodies in the streets made disease routine. Flour doubled in price. Sugar went from 32,000 to 50,000 Sudanese poun...

Image: Petr Adam Dohnálek | CC BY-SA 3.0 cz

Battle of Khartoum (2023–2025): The Long Grind Back

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Asim, CC BY-SA 3.0. Late in 2024 the Sudanese Armed Forces began to turn the battle. A major offensive launched on 26 September 2024 retook bridges connecting Omdurman to Khartoum. By February 2025, Bahri was fully in SAF hands. On 21 March 2025, they confirmed control of the Presidential Palace. On...

Image: Asim | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Khartoum (2023–2025): What the Numbers Do Not Say

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit عاصم الرشيد التوم, CC BY-SA 3.0. More than 61,000 dead. Across Sudan, over 12 million displaced -- the largest displacement crisis in the world. Forty-one thousand wounded, by some estimates, in the Khartoum area alone. A city of more than five million mostly emptied by evacuation, flight to Port Sudan or Wad-Ma...

Image: عاصم الرشيد التوم | CC BY-SA 3.0