Sudan's Manufacturing Sector Struggles to Recover From War

Mansour Gaily walks through his factory in Omdurman most mornings now, past machinery that still bears the marks of three years of war. The plant once turned out sweets sold across local markets and kept workers on payroll. Today it runs at roughly 40 percent of its prewar capacity, according to Al Jazeera, which visited the site more than three years after fighting broke out between Sudan's Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023.

"Our losses are estimated at $1m," Gaily told Al Jazeera. "We lost some machinery, spare parts, and needed to rebuild large parts of the factory."

His experience is not unusual. It is close to the median outcome for Sudan's manufacturing base, which sat at the center of the country's economy before the war and has become one of its slowest sectors to recover.

How much of Sudan's industrial sector did the war destroy?

Sudan's Ministry of Industry estimates that approximately 1,800 industrial facilities were damaged during the war, including 650 factories that were completely destroyed, Al Jazeera reported. The ministry's figures point to a sector that was not simply interrupted but structurally gutted — a distinction that matters for how long rebuilding will take and how much capital it will require.

Khartoum had been one of Sudan's main industrial centers before the war, home to factories producing food, textiles and other consumer goods. The city became a major battleground between the SAF and RSF, and while attacks have been sporadic since the army fully recaptured Khartoum last year, the industrial sector has not been rebuilt, according to the report.

What happened inside Sudan's factories during the fighting?

Abdulelah Mohamed, who owns a plastic products and recycling factory in Khartoum, described the damage in blunt terms. "Damaging, destroying and looting the factories was systematic. We lost everything," Mohamed told Al Jazeera.

His assessment extended beyond his own operation. "The industrial sector needs new planning and a new vision so Sudan can produce things again," he said — a framing that treats the current moment less as a restart and more as a rebuild from first principles.

Sara Elfatih Khalil, chief executive of Al Teital Advance Industries, offered a parallel account from the food sector. Her company's Khartoum factory produced sesame oil and, before the war, employed 300 workers. Its warehouses were looted during the fighting, and the buildings sustained damage that has complicated efforts to resume operations, according to Al Jazeera.

Why is reopening still difficult even where buildings survived?

The damage to physical plants is only part of the obstacle. Al Jazeera reported that raw materials, finished goods and equipment were destroyed or looted across the sector, while electricity shortages, damaged transport networks and rising import costs have made reopening difficult even for businesses whose premises survived the fighting intact. That combination means owners who kept their buildings still face the same cost pressures as those rebuilding from rubble — higher input prices, unreliable power and logistics bottlenecks that slow delivery of both materials and finished goods.

What is the timeline from the war's start to today?

Fighting between the SAF and RSF began in April 2023, halting production at Gaily's sweets factory and thousands of other businesses nationwide, Al Jazeera reported. Khartoum remained a central battleground for an extended period before the army fully recaptured the city last year. Attacks since then have been described as sporadic rather than sustained. More than three years after the war began, Gaily's factory has resumed production but remains well below its prior output, and the broader industrial sector — by the Ministry of Industry's own count of 1,800 damaged and 650 destroyed facilities — has not been rebuilt.

What would it take to rebuild Sudan's factories?

None of the owners who spoke with Al Jazeera described a quick fix. Mohamed's call for "new planning and a new vision" reflects a view that incremental repairs will not be enough given the scale of looting and destruction. For workers who lost jobs when factories like Khalil's sesame oil plant went idle, and for consumers now facing higher prices tied to damaged supply chains, the pace of that rebuilding will shape both household budgets and the broader economy's trajectory in the years ahead.

By the numbers

• 1,800 industrial facilities damaged nationwide, per Sudan's Ministry of Industry
• 650 factories completely destroyed, per the same ministry count
• $1 million in estimated losses at Mansour Gaily's Omdurman sweets factory
• 40 percent of prewar capacity at which Gaily's factory currently operates
• 300 workers employed at Al Teital Advance Industries' sesame oil plant before the war

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