Sudan's Khartoum airport gets a new runway as it inches closer to reopening

Members of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council visited Khartoum’s International Airport on Thursday.

They were there to inspect progress in rebuilding the facility which has been closed since the start of the country’s civil war over two years ago.

The army recaptured the airport in March, and with a new runway completed, it is now a step closer to reopening.

Council member, Ibrahim Jaber, said "significant progress" has been made, but terminals, arrival halls, and basic services such as electricity and water remain in need of repair.

He said he hope planes would return to the capital’s airport soon and that the Sudanese people will return “after a long absence from their homeland”.

“This will be a lifeline, connecting those who were displaced or forced to migrate with those who remained in Sudan. At the very least, a person will be able to see their home and workplace again,” he said.

There have been reports that the federal government could return to Khartoum at the same time as the airport is expected to reopen in October.

The government and federal institutions have been operating from the eastern city of Port Sudan amid the ongoing war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Over 40,000 people have died in fighting between the Sudanese military, its allies, and the rival RSF, which captured swathes of the country after fighting erupted in April 2023.

The army has maintained control of Sudan's northern and eastern states. Earlier this year, it also regained its central states and Khartoum, but the RSF still controls parts of the vast western Darfur region.

Military control of the airport, along with calm in the capital, could allow aid groups to fly more desperately needed supplies into the country.

The United Nations says the fighting has forcibly displaced some 12 million Sudanese and created a severe crisis, with over half the population acutely food insecure.