Sudan factories struggle to restart after devastating wartime losses

A factory restart means production begins again after war or another shutdown. It does not mean the business has fully recovered. A factory may reopen with fewer machines, workers, materials, or operating hours. Manufacturing is the organized production of goods from raw materials, usually using workers, equipment, energy, and buildings. It includes making food, textiles, plastics, and other products.

Mansour Gaily’s Khartoum sweets factory shows the difference between reopening and recovering. Production resumed, but the factory operates at only 40 percent of its previous capacity. It lost machinery and spare parts, and large parts of the building had to be rebuilt. The factory still needs ingredients, packaging, electricity, spare parts, and workers to keep producing.

Restarting matters because factories support jobs and supply goods to local consumers. Sudan’s industrial sector has suffered extensive destruction, so individual reopenings are important but incomplete. Recovery depends on restoring the wider systems that manufacturing requires, including supplies, finance, transport, electricity, and security.

The war damaged approximately 1,800 industrial facilities across Sudan. Of these, about 650 factories were completely destroyed, according to the Ministry of Industry. The numbers cover a sector that once supplied food, textiles, and other consumer goods, especially from Khartoum, one of Sudan’s main industrial centres.

The damage was not limited to factory walls. Machinery, spare parts, raw materials, finished goods, and equipment were also destroyed or looted. Abdulelah Mohamed, who owns a plastic products and recycling factory in Khartoum, said the destruction and looting were systematic. He described the situation as catastrophic and said his factory lost everything.

These figures explain why the sector has been slow to recover. Rebuilding requires large amounts of capital, secure premises, functioning transport, electricity, workers, and reliable supplies. The article reports that fewer than 10 percent of factories in the sector are currently operational, often only intermittently.

Reduced fighting does not automatically restore an industrial economy. Factories need intact buildings and machinery, steady electricity, transport routes, raw materials, workers, financing, and confidence. War damaged or looted many of these foundations. Even businesses whose premises survived face broken supply chains, higher import costs, and unreliable services.

Gaily’s sweets factory illustrates the problem. It lost machinery and spare parts and had to rebuild large sections of the factory. It also needs sesame, sugar, packaging, electricity, and labourers. A disruption to any one of these inputs can stop production, so the factory operates at only 40 percent of its former capacity.

The sector remains far from normal. Khalil said fewer than 10 percent of factories are operational, and those open work intermittently. Manufacturers also lack capital to replace equipment, buy stock, and pay workers before sales return. Recovery therefore requires security, political stability, clear policies, infrastructure, and financing.

Factories need usable buildings and machinery, raw materials, packaging, electricity, transport, workers, and financing. These elements work together. If one fails, production can slow or stop. Financing is also essential because businesses must replace equipment, buy stock, and pay employees before new sales generate income.

Gaily’s sweets factory needs sesame, sugar, packaging, spare parts, electricity, and labourers. It lost machinery and spare parts during the war and rebuilt large parts of its premises. Because capital is limited and workers are missing, it operates at 40 percent of its former capacity. Other manufacturers must import materials that were previously available locally, increasing their costs.

The wider system remains damaged. Electricity shortages and broken transport networks disrupt deliveries. Looted warehouses have cut access to stored goods. Companies with lost machinery, stock, and income cannot easily borrow or invest. Khalil says fewer than 10 percent of factories operate, often intermittently, showing how shortages reinforce one another.

Factory closures damage both ends of the supply chain. Workers lose wages and may struggle to find replacement jobs. Consumers have fewer locally made goods available and face higher prices. Shopkeepers can also have less stock to sell when domestic producers cannot deliver. The article directly links the war to job losses and higher consumer prices.

Mohamed Haj lost his job at a sweets factory in Khartoum North at the beginning of the war. He said the owner could not restore his employment. Gaily’s factory, meanwhile, produces at only 40 percent of its previous capacity. Such reduced output means fewer goods reach shops, while disruptions make supplies harder and more expensive to obtain.

The effects can continue even when fighting decreases. Factories need time and money to rebuild, and workers need jobs to return. If production remains low, consumers may keep paying more and shopkeepers may face unreliable supplies. Reviving industry could provide jobs for thousands of workers, according to Haj.

Imports can partly fill a supply gap when local factories are closed or producing too little. Finished imported goods may give consumers and shopkeepers another source of products. The article specifically describes manufacturers importing materials that were once available inside Sudan, rather than detailing imports of finished consumer goods.

This substitution raises costs because businesses must buy from abroad and move supplies through damaged transport networks. Gaily’s factory already faces shortages of sesame, sugar, packaging, spare parts, electricity, and workers. Other manufacturers now import materials previously sourced locally, making production more expensive and vulnerable to further transport or supply disruptions.

Imports therefore provide only a partial solution. They can support production or replace some unavailable products, but they do not repair Sudan’s factories or supply chains. Prices may remain high or change unpredictably when delivery routes fail, imported inputs become more expensive, or businesses lack financing to purchase stock.

A functioning industrial sector helps a postwar economy in several connected ways. It provides employment, makes goods for domestic consumers, supports other businesses, and creates a base for economic recovery. Local production can also reduce dependence on disrupted supply routes. Sudan’s Ministry of Industry describes the sector as essential to employment, domestic production, and recovery.

The examples are direct. Gaily’s sweets factory once employed workers and supplied local consumers. Khalil’s sesame-oil factory employed 300 people before the war, but looted warehouses and damaged buildings have kept it closed. Haj lost his factory job and said industrial revival could provide work for thousands.

Industry cannot recover through reopening buildings alone. Manufacturers need security, political stability, clear economic policies, legal protection, financing, electricity, transport, and reliable supplies. If those conditions improve, Khalil believes industry can recover rapidly. Without them, low production, joblessness, and high prices will continue to weigh on Sudan’s recovery.