Face of Truth: Khartoum Returns with Security and Services..
Ibrahim Shaglawi
The return of Khartoum begins where the state itself begins: with security, services, and the restoration of the center of decision-making. Capitals are not reclaimed through mobilizing rhetoric, nor are they built on promises and wishful thinking, but through the authority’s ability to impose order and operate from the heart of events. Therefore, the extension of the mandate of the Security Control Committee and the enforcement of the state’s authority, in parallel with the return of ministries, together represent the clearest political declaration of the state’s transition from managing war to managing governance.
Security has long been presented as an exceptional
measure that expresses the re-establishment of state authority. Emphasizing the carrying of identification documents, regulating the foreign presence, removing illegal holdings, inspecting vehicles, and activating social and economic committees are political tools that redraw the civil service after it was fragmented by war. Through these measures, the state reclaims its right to define sovereignty and legitimacy, and closes the gray spaces where chaos had expanded. This is a decisive moment in which authority declares the end of an era of leniency and the beginning of an era of the rule of law and unity of the social fabric.
In parallel, the return of ministries to Khartoum carries an important significance. A state that manages its affairs from outside its capital remains, in political analysis, a state with incomplete presence and limited effectiveness. The regular conduct of work from the Council of Ministers complex, and the rise in attendance rates of employees—especially in service-oriented ministries—mean that the center of decision-making has returned to the national capital, Khartoum.
The anticipated return of the Prime Minister early next week to commence his duties from Khartoum completes the transfer of political weight to the capital of the state, and reconnects national decision-making with the direct social, service, and security reality.
Accordingly, security becomes a binding condition for the return of politics and administration. Without stability, there can be no talk of developmental planning, services, or a new social contract. Yet the state, as it reasserts order, recognizes that security alone does not create legitimacy. Therefore, the services track advances as the real test of the credibility of the return. The reopening of “Stack Laboratory,” the launch of the “Lifeline” project, and the restoration of Haj Al-Safi and Bahri hospitals represent the state’s reclaiming of its highest function: protecting life. In a country exhausted by war, the human body becomes the criterion by which the usefulness of the state is judged, and every stable health service is a restoration of trust.
The notable shift in this path does not lie in opening facilities, but in the move toward regulation and governance. The introduction of modern technologies, digitization, efforts to pass the Blood Transfusion Services Law, and the digital identity reflect a transition from the logic of emergency response to the logic of institutional building. The same applies to the rehabilitation of reference hospitals, such as Ahmed Qasim Hospital, in a conscious attempt to redistribute healthcare weight within the capital and compensate for the gaps left by the exit of major hospitals from service. This is a serious attempt to rebuild the function of the “center” that Khartoum lost during the shameful war.
The electricity file remains the most challenging test of this return. Completing the maintenance system and reinstalling lines, transformers, and switches, alongside the Electricity of Al-Fath Squares project, should not be read merely as a service, but as a condition for social and economic stability. Politically, electricity is the infrastructure of security; without it there can be no broad population return, no economic activity, and no stable civic life.
The restructuring of committees in all public facilities, the return of workers, the review of contracts, and the updating of financial data indicate a belated but decisive awareness that the post-war battle is a battle of management and efficiency, not merely resource mobilization.
Alongside the restoration of social peace and services, the state moves within the cultural sphere. The maintenance of the National Theatre and the National Records Office, and the reopening of Khidr Bashir Theatre, reflect a deep understanding that recovery is incomplete without rebuilding the public conscience. Culture here is a soft and intelligent political tool that returns the Sudanese individual to the heart of the state, and confronts the effects of violence with the language of dialogue and creativity. The return of theatre means the return of civic life that long disappeared under the pressure of weapons and fear.
The return of Khartoum today is not a hasty return, but a political, security, and service-oriented path that is steadily forming to rebuild the state from its capital. Extending security, the regular functioning of institutions, improvement of basic services, and the return of cultural life are all indicators that the city is recovering and regaining the conditions for decent living and productive work. This return asks citizens for nothing more than trust in the leadership and support for it; likewise, it requires the leadership to exert greater effort, beginning with announcing a vision related to the engineering of the heart of Khartoum and the Nile waterfront. Khartoum opens its doors to its people to return as a city governed by law, where dignity is safeguarded, and whose future is built by the hands of its people, step by step, with patient and attentive awareness that benefits from the lessons of war.
According to #Face_of_Truth, Khartoum returns as the state’s greatest test. It returns first with security to restore sovereignty, with the return of ministries to restore the center of decision-making, then with services to entrench legitimacy, and with culture to mend meanings and values. It is a return fraught with challenges, but one that carries—if well managed—the possibility of transformation from a capital emerging from war into a capital that lays the foundations for a state more aware of its existential issues.
Wishing you continued well-being and good health.
Tuesday, January 6, 2026
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