Al-Tahir al-Mardi rejoins family as Khartoum returnees face ruins

The current war began on 15 April 2023, when a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces became open conflict in Khartoum and other regions. Sudan had already passed through the 2019 overthrow of Omar al-Bashir, the 2021 military coup and repeated failed transition efforts. In March 2025, the army said it had recaptured key Khartoum sites including the presidential palace and airport. Earlier precedents matter: Darfur’s mass violence from 2003 onward produced long-running displacement, sanctions and international criminal scrutiny, and today’s conflict has revived many of those patterns on a wider national scale.

Sudan’s war sits at the intersection of state collapse, Red Sea security, Gulf influence, arms flows and migration pressure across northeast Africa. Khartoum’s partial return does not end the conflict; it changes the map of power while violence and displacement persist in Darfur and Kordofan. For Europe, instability affects humanitarian budgets, regional partnerships and sanctions policy.

The trigger is the 17 June 2026 lead video showing Al-Tahir al-Mardi’s reunion in Khartoum. Its timing matters because the capital has moved from active frontline symbol to return-and-reconstruction test while the wider war remains unresolved.