Sudan Urban Planning: Quick Wins and Long-Term Strategy for Major and Minor Cities

This is a living reference, updated periodically as conditions and priorities change. As of mid-2026, Sudan’s war is in its fourth year; the army has recaptured Khartoum and national institutions officially returned to the capital in January 2026, bringing a fragile, partial normalcy to central Khartoum even as fighting continues elsewhere, notably Darfur. That makes this a reconstruction-planning document, not a hypothetical one. Why This Matters Now Sudan’s cities were shaped by a century of planning that consistently deprioritized ordinary residents. The 1930s colonial-era plan for Khartoum built a European-style core with boulevards, a botanical garden, and storm drainage — but explicitly excluded Omdurman and Khartoum North, pushing “native villages” beyond the railway line with no equivalent investment. Every plan since — the 1991 Doxiadis structure plan, the 2008–2033 KPP5 plan — repeated the pattern: infrastructure for the center, informal growth and neglect at the margins, and green space treated as the first casualty when budgets tightened. ...

August 6, 2026 · 19 min · Kandaka

Energy Sufficiency and the Unfinished Business of Post-Conflict Development in Sudan

Sudan is fighting two crises that are usually discussed separately and are, in fact, one problem. Its electricity system has partially collapsed, and its economy has been unable to convert the end of conflict into durable development for as long as anyone can remember. Reliable power is the precondition for reviving agriculture, restarting industry, and running clinics and schools. The institutions, financing, and investment climate needed to build that power system are themselves casualties of the same decades of conflict that broke the economy. Treating energy reconstruction as a technical side project, separate from the harder political-economy questions, is how Sudan ends up rebuilding the same fragile system twice. ...

July 24, 2026 · 8 min · Kandaka