Residents of Khartoum, Sudan's war-battered capital, are enduring a deepening humanitarian crisis as prolonged electricity outages — sometimes stretching up to 48 hours — combine with scorching summer heat to disrupt food storage, healthcare services, and livelihoods across the city. The situation is particularly acute in southern Khartoum, where families, clinics, and small businesses are struggling to cope with daily life under near-total power failure.

How Families Are Coping

In one neighbourhood in southern Khartoum, homemaker Kawthar Ahmed described how her household has restructured its entire day around the unpredictable electricity schedule. 'We charge our phones, run the water pump and try to preserve food whenever power returns, but the supply lasts only a few hours and alternatives are limited,' she said. Her brother, who is ill and requires a cool environment, is among the most directly affected — outages lasting two days at a stretch, she said, only worsen his condition.

Fellow resident Ruaa Omer, who has diabetes, faces a more acute danger: prolonged outages spoil refrigerated food and jeopardise the storage of insulin, placing an additional financial and medical burden on an already stretched household. Abdul-Aleem Mohamed, another southern Khartoum resident, said, 'There is no cold water, you cannot keep food fresh for long, and everything in the house is affected whenever the electricity goes out.'

Impact on Businesses and Healthcare

At a grocery store in southern Khartoum, owner Mohamed Ahmed Bashir said spoiled goods translate into direct financial losses, while running generators has become prohibitively expensive due to soaring fuel prices. Solar power, he noted, remains unaffordable for most small businesses. The crisis is equally severe in healthcare settings: dentist Ruaa Adil Mustafa, who runs a clinic in the area, said daily outages of up to 18 hours have forced her to suspend procedures or postpone cases until power is restored. 'Running generators has sharply increased operating expenses because of high fuel prices,' she said.

Health Warnings as Temperatures Rise

Health expert Osama Awadallah has warned of mounting risks of skin rashes, dehydration, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke, particularly for children, older adults, and people with chronic illnesses. He urged residents to drink adequate water, avoid direct sun exposure, and stay in well-ventilated spaces. This comes amid a broader public health fragility in Khartoum, where the ongoing conflict has already severely degraded medical infrastructure.

What Experts and Officials Say

Energy expert Essam El-Din Al-Zein attributed the sustained outages to declining generation capacity, the shutdown of power plants, and damage to transmission and distribution networks. He said restoring stable supply will require increased generation capacity, rehabilitation of power stations, and repairs to damaged grid infrastructure. Sudan's Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, for its part, cited rising demand driven by high temperatures, the return of displaced residents, and increased agricultural and industrial consumption, alongside maintenance shutdowns. The ministry said more than 260 megawatts have been restored to the national grid through maintenance work, with available generation capacity expected to exceed 600 megawatts following ongoing rehabilitation efforts. Whether that will be sufficient to meet demand in the near term remains unclear.