Khartoum, Sudan – Mansour Gaily’s factory in Khartoum produced sweets for local consumers and provided employment for workers. But when fighting erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023, production ground to a halt, like thousands of other businesses across the country. More than three years later, Gaily faces the challenge of bringing his business back to life.
Production may have resumed, but the factory is only operating at 40 percent of its previous capacity. Before the war, Khartoum was one of the country’s main industrial centres, home to factories producing food, textiles and other consumer goods. However, Khartoum became a major battleground between the SAF and the RSF during the war, and although there have only been sporadic attacks since the army fully recaptured it last year, the industrial sector has not been rebuilt.
According to Sudan’s Ministry of Industry, approximately 1,800 industrial facilities have been damaged during the war, including 650 factories that were completely destroyed. The figures illustrate the scale of the challenge facing a sector that is essential to employment, domestic production and economic recovery. Abdulelah Mohamed owns a factory for plastic products and recycling in Khartoum.
He describes the situation as catastrophic. We lost everything,” Mohamed said. Raw materials, finished goods and equipment have been destroyed or looted, while electricity shortages, damaged transport networks and rising import costs have made reopening difficult even for businesses whose premises survived the fighting.
Sara Elfatih Khalil, chief executive of Al Teital Advance Industries, is among the manufacturers confronting these challenges. Her company’s factory in Khartoum produced sesame oil and, before the war, provided employment for 300 workers. Its warehouses have been looted during the fighting, and with damaged buildings and a supply chain that remains broken, the factory continues to be shut down.
Less than 10 percent of factories in the sector are currently operational, and those that remain open are operating intermittently, with costs that threaten their continued viability.” For Gaily, restoring production at his sweets factory requires a steady supply of ingredients, including sesame and sugar, as well as packaging, spare parts, electricity and workers. Disruption to any of these can bring production to a halt. Some now must import materials that were previously available locally, increasing costs and making production vulnerable to further disruptions in transport and supply.
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