Sudan's factories struggle to recover after wartime destruction

Factories in Khartoum, Sudan, are struggling to resume normal operations more than three years after war broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023, which halted production at thousands of businesses.

Mansour Gaily, who owns a sweets factory in Khartoum, said his business has only managed to restart at 40 percent of its pre-war output. He told Al Jazeera that his losses amount to about $1m, citing destroyed machinery, missing spare parts, and the need to rebuild large sections of the factory.

Khartoum was previously one of Sudan's key industrial hubs, hosting factories producing food, textiles and other consumer goods. The city became a major front line in the conflict between the SAF and RSF, and although the army fully retook control of it last year, the industrial sector has yet to be rebuilt despite only sporadic attacks since then.

Sudan's Ministry of Industry estimates that around 1,800 industrial facilities have suffered damage during the war, with 650 factories completely destroyed. The figures highlight the scale of the task facing a sector considered vital to employment, domestic production and the country's broader economic recovery.