Face of Truth: Do Not Miss the Chance to Re-Engineer Khartoum
Ibrahim Shaglawi
Yesterday, I took a tour with a number of friends who recently returned from Cairo. Our tour included Khartoum, Omdurman, and Bahri. The capital looked like someone trying to catch their breath after the disgrace of war. Electricity poles are being installed again, water connections renewed, streets paved, and hospitals and universities resuming operation after a long absence. Small workshops here, maintenance teams there, and movement resembling the heartbeat of someone pulled back from the edge of death. This is the Khartoum we want to return. When the city resumes its work, the state regains its standing, families regain their confidence, and people return from the misery of displacement and exile.
But behind this scene, troubling shadows appear—shadows many do not notice. The roads have filled with beggars from all directions, some in full health, others engaging in marginal activities at the expense of public order. The sidewalks have gradually begun transforming—just as before—into unregulated open spaces. These scenes are not new; they are the same signs that preceded the war, when Khartoum was slowly losing its prestige and sovereignty, without anyone sensing the growing danger.
Politically, this means that the state is focusing on rehabilitating infrastructure, while neglecting the most critical part of Khartoum: rehabilitating its spirit, its order, its prestige, and the responsibilities of its residents. The social disorder we see now is an early indicator of state fragility if not addressed with awareness and responsibility. Every state is built twice: once with stone, and once with order and values. And if stone alone is built, it will crack sooner or later.
The security scene brings back memories of the pre-war period, when organized groups of beggars spread across the capital—an expression of poverty—alongside networks involved in monitoring and tracking the city’s daily movement. Remarkably, the same faces now appear, in the same manner, with the same discipline and distribution, as if redeploying to resume a role left unfinished.
This movement is not spontaneous; it is a calculated redeployment of networks that have flowed into the capital for decades, using kiosks, markets, and marginal goods as anchor points inside Khartoum. These networks work to build a “counter-presence” within the cities, allowing them to move whenever needed. Their emergence today indicates that the re-shaping of the internal front has begun, and that post-war forces are trying to establish a new foothold within a social space that has not yet been reorganized.
In the midst of this tension observed by our own eyes, a workshop was held in Khartoum State to draft a security and judicial strategy extending to 2036, with participation from the judiciary, prosecution, regular forces, intelligence, and experts. The governor emphasized the need to stabilize security, referring to challenges such as foreign presence, informal settlements, and lawlessness. Meanwhile, the Supreme Council for Strategy and Information stressed that security and the rule of law are the foundation of reconstruction. The state police chief spoke of a security philosophy that anticipates threats instead of waiting for them—an implicit admission that Khartoum was previously managed reactively rather than proactively.
But these workshops, no matter how broad the participation, will remain meaningless if their recommendations are not implemented immediately. The groups that redeployed inside the city may be relying on time. Every day the state delays its decisions offers these networks a chance to reorganize, and perhaps expand their economic and social presence. Here lies the direct responsibility of the official authorities in the state, and the higher committee led by Lieutenant General Ibrahim Jaber, tasked with rehabilitating the capital, regulating unorganized presence, and removing visible chaos.
Yet the state alone cannot fight this battle. Citizens are the second line of defense and the true partners in security. Their awareness, their careful observations, and their ability to detect unfamiliar faces and unusual movements form an indispensable foundation. Security is a societal matter as much as it is an official one.
The role of the media is also emerging—especially developmental media—as part of reconstructing political awareness and enhancing security sensitivity. The media here must not limit itself to transmitting information; it must work to engineer public opinion, raise its sensitivity to infiltration, expose networks operating in the shadows, and transform the citizen from a spectator into a key actor in protecting security.
Delays in confronting this scene will give these networks the chance to re-empower themselves. Here, the field reality intersects with the outcomes of the recent security workshop: the state is facing a real test of how quickly it can act, how capable it is of rebuilding its intelligence structure, organizing its security movement, controlling the capital’s boundaries and interior, and preventing any human presence not integrated into the state’s norms.
Re-engineering Khartoum today is not an urban project, but a political and civilizational one to protect the state and prevent the return of the chaos that helped ignite the war when the capital was destabilized. The window of opportunity available today is limited, and any delay might return Khartoum to the pre-war stage—but in a more organized and deeply infiltrated form. The tripartite capital needs the arm of the state, the awareness of society, and every media effort to restore security and social stability.
Khartoum must be fortified with political awareness, responsible media, and citizens who understand that their return is not merely a personal step, but part of the battle to restore the state itself. Security begins in alleys and neighborhoods before ministries, with community vigilance before office decisions, with urgent action before delayed analysis. Those who know Khartoum recognize that its return to work, social life, political engagement, cultural vitality, and order means the state’s return to its role and the people’s hope for security and prosperity. And this is the #Face_of_Truth.
Wishing you well and in good health.
Monday, 1 December 2025
Shglawi55@gmail.com