Khartoum, Sudan \u2013 <\/strong>Two years after they were displaced by civil war, Rafeeda Abubakr and her husband returned home to Khartoum, where they embarked on a challenging journey to rehabilitate their 21-year-old son from a drug addiction that had pushed him to seclusion and given him a bad temper.<\/p>\n Once a cheerful civil engineering student at the University of Sudan, Muaz had become withdrawn, sullen, and prone to sudden outbursts due to an addiction to \u201cice,\u201d a methamphetamine variant that has spread rapidly across Sudan since the war began.<\/p>\n The family, originally from Shuqailab, a town roughly 90km (60 miles) south of central Khartoum, had fled to al-Duwaym in White Nile State when the war broke out between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on April 15, 2023.<\/p>\n It was there, in July 2024, that Muaz\u2019s addiction became apparent. He had fallen in with a group of young men during the family\u2019s displacement, and his drug use had spiralled out of control.<\/p>\n Amid the drastic humanitarian crisis that unfolded in the country since, and the near complete absence of medical care as hospitals were targeted and healthcare workers were driven into displacement, Muaz and other patients suffering psychiatric problems received no care.<\/p>\n When conditions in Khartoum stabilised enough to return, Rafeeda brought her son home and began looking for treatment. They found it only at the Al-Tijani Al-Mahi Hospital for Psychiatric and Neurological Diseases.<\/p>\n \u201cWe heard the hospital had reopened and launched an initiative for war patients, people with trauma and addiction,\u201d Rafeeda told Al Jazeera. \u201cSince November, we have been coming every two weeks. The treatment is free, and I can feel my son is improving a little. That has brought me some relief.\u201d<\/p>\n The moment you step inside Al-Tijani Al-Mahi Hospital, the damage announces itself.<\/p>\n Medical equipment, beds, furniture, electrical cables and air conditioning units have all been stripped. Bullet casings and shell fragments are still visible to any visitor who walks the perimeter of a site that was once named after one of Sudan\u2019s most celebrated psychiatrists.<\/p>\n Rehabilitation is moving slowly. The economic hardships that had been exacerbated by the war make speed impossible, and the needs are vast. But the team behind the War Patients Initiative works through it anyway, receiving cases and writing prescriptions from crumbling offices under the open sun.<\/p>\n Al-Tijani Al-Mahi was founded in 1971 and is among the oldest psychiatric facilities in Central and East Africa. By the time the war reached Omdurman, \u201cit had been looted, its wards damaged, its equipment stolen, and its buildings left in a state of disrepair that the hospital estimates has caused losses now running into millions of dollars,\u201d Dr Mai Mohamed Youssef, the hospital\u2019s director, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n In October 2024, Sudan\u2019s Ministry of Health issued an order to demolish what remained of the buildings. Youssef, who had spent her entire career at Al-Tijani Al-Mahi since graduating from Omdurman Islamic University\u2019s medical school in 1998, rejected the decision.<\/p>\n \u201cWe discussed it for days,\u201d she said. \u201cThen we decided to fight the decision.\u201d<\/p>\n Together with some of her colleagues, she succeeded in reversing the demolition order. On July 13, 2025, Youssef returned to the hospital with a single colleague. The two decided to reopen the facility<\/p>\n Youssef had stayed in Omdurman throughout the fighting, hunkering down at her home in the Rabatab neighbourhood with her son and mother as shells flew around them. She described navigating her own psychological trauma through the decision to stay. That same determination shaped what came next.<\/p>\n Her first challenge was infrastructure. The hospital had no running water and no electricity. Staff set up solar panels to power basic operations and worked to establish a functioning pharmacy.<\/p>\n In the early weeks, there were no inpatient beds. Every case that required hospitalisation was transferred to al-Naw Hospital or the Military Medical Corps facility in Omdurman.<\/p>\n The outpatient clinic started with psychiatric consultations, prescriptions and referrals. Within a month, the volunteer medical team had grown from two to six doctors. It now stands at nine, including two consultants, all working within what the hospital calls its referral clinic.<\/p>\n \u201cThe hospital currently receives between 60 and 70 patients daily, up from around 50 when it first reopened. Among the cases are children, women, and men suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety and drug addiction.<\/p>\n \u201cMost addiction cases involve ice or crystal meth, and the majority of patients are young people between 23 and 40 years old,\u201d Youssef told Al Jazeera. \u201cMany of them were displaced to neighbouring countries and returned to Sudan after the fighting eased,\u201d she said. \u201cThey came back with addictions.\u201d<\/p>\n One case that stayed with her was that of a man in his early thirties who attempted suicide after prolonged drug use. \u201cIt was a horrific and painful scene,\u201d Youssef added.<\/p>\n![\"Volunteers](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-02-24-at-00.29.49-1-1772950514.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
Rebuilding from scratch<\/h2>\n
![\"Photos](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-02-24-at-00.27.29-12-1772970298.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")