SAF Government Formally Returns to Khartoum; Central Bank of Sudan Resumes Capital Operations

The SAF-aligned Sudanese government formally announced its complete return to Khartoum as the nation's official seat of government, ending its 25-month tenure at Port Sudan — the Red Sea city that served as Sudan's wartime de facto capital from May 2023. As part of the return, the Central Bank of Sudan resumed operations in Khartoum for the first time since the war erupted on April 15, 2023, signaling a restoration of formal economic governance in the capital. The return follows SAF's comprehensive recapture of the Greater Khartoum metropolitan area (Khartoum, Omdurman, and Bahri) through its sustained counteroffensive between late 2024 and early 2025, culminating in the recapture of the Presidential Palace in March 2025. The May 13, 2026 clearance of the Al-Jami'a and Al-Shaqla neighborhoods in southern Omdurman — the last RSF pockets in the metro area — directly enabled the final phase of government return. The Central Bank's resumption of Khartoum operations is significant for economic stabilization: Port Sudan-based operations were limited by infrastructure and capacity, and reunifying financial governance under one roof is a prerequisite for any effort to arrest Sudan's hyperinflation (estimated at 200%+ since 2023). The government return is primarily symbolic for Sudanese citizens, more than 90% of whom have seen their economic conditions collapse catastrophically. RSF retains control of all five Darfur state capitals, South Kordofan, West Kordofan, and the bulk of the country's agricultural and mineral resource zones. The war has not ended; the government return to Khartoum represents a phase boundary, not a resolution.