#KeepEyesOnSudan When comparing Khartoum’s average temperatures between 2003 and 2006 with the average between 2023 and 2026, we find the temperature has risen by roughly 0.9 to 1.3 degrees Celsius. That is a striking increase against the levels of global warming, which has averaged about 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade since the 1980s. At that pace, the rise of Khartoum’s temperature over the same period should have been only about 0.4 degrees Celsius. Instead, the increase Khartoum has actually recorded is 225% to 325% higher than that—meaning the city is warming far faster than the rest of the world. Many global and local factors lie behind this. But the past three years have brought exceptional conditions driven by the war, which has accelerated several of the local pressures that shape the city’s climate and push temperatures up. The widespread stripping of vegetation, the fires, the shelling, and the decay of the built environment are all unnatural forces that drive nighttime temperatures higher. They disrupt the natural cooling cycle and weaken the city’s ability to cool down after dark. As a result, the land and buildings start each day a little hotter than the day before, and the city wakes every morning to a higher baseline temperature. This builds into a cumulative cycle that makes heat waves last longer and hit harder—with direct consequences for public health, energy use, and water supplies, and a steady worsening of heat stress. This is where the Khartoum afforestation initiative matters. It is not simply a project to beautify the city, it is a new front in the fight against climate change and a effort to repair the urban environment. Studies suggest that expanding tree cover in Khartoum could lower local temperatures by around 3 to 5 degrees Celsius, while also cleaning the air, cutting dust, reducing energy use, helping the soil hold more water, and strengthening the capital’s overall resilience to heat waves. This initiative does not start from scratch. It builds on pioneering youth and community efforts that came before it, such as the “Green Khartoum” initiative and others. The proposed project aims to bring these efforts together under a single coordinating framework, in partnership with the state government, public institutions, the private sector, civil society, and volunteers—turning scattered initiatives into a broad national program to rebuild the capital’s green cover and restore its beauty. And we are coming back to you, Khartoum. Dr. Amgad Fareid Eltayeb