UGANDA. Kiryandongo. November 22, 2024. “I am Abla Mukhtar from Khartoum. We left Khartoum after Eid al-Fitr and went to the White Nile state, where we stayed with my parents for two months. After that, the journey began from the White Nile to Renk in South Sudan. We stayed in the Renk camp for about two months, then moved to Juba, and from there we came to the Nyumanzi Refugee Settlement, where we stayed for three months. After that, we arrived here at the kiryandongo refugee Settlement on January, 2024. We’ve been here for a little over a year now, and the conditions here are very tough. When we came here, we found the Sudanese gathered together, and there was a strong sense of unity, as if Sudan itself had been recreated here. I hope the war in Sudan ends, that our relatives in Sudan stay safe, and that things return to how they were, even though the situation here is difficult, it is still much better than Sudan with the war going on there. We left for the sake of the children’s safety, stability, and so they could get an education”. Abla © Salih Basheer

The Return

Salih Basheer

2024 – Ongoing — Sudan and neighbouring countries

About this series

In his project The Return Salih Basheer documents the devastation of the war in Sudan, focusing on the humanitarian impact and experiences of loss and displacement. Born in Sudan, Salih is intimately connected to this story, and through it, he presents the challenges his people are facing — both inside Sudan and in neighboring countries where many have sought refuge.
” I find myself holding back from reaching out to my family.
They are still in Khartoum since the conflict started. I think I’m trying to avoid hearing bad news. They’re surviving and have adapted to the new reality, sadly.
Three days ago, I had a nightmare for the first time in a long while. I think it was triggered by hearing the stories of Sudanese I met recently who escaped the war almost a year ago, just like me. Hearing their stories of how they got out of Sudan dragged me back to my memories”.
Salih Basheer’s work is also part of the 2026 edition of Magnum Chronicles, dedicated to youth. Inspired by Magnum’s first collective storytelling project, Generation X (1951), led by Robert Capa, this edition revisits the post-war generation while Magnum photographers today undertake a parallel exploration of Gen Z.

KENYA. Nairobi. September 25, 2024. The image is a collage I made of screenshots of videos posted on social media by the RSF. © Salih Basheer
UGANDA. Kampala. November 19, 2024. I met Ammar, a 19-year-old Sudanese man from Khartoum who fled the war, first to South Sudan and then to Kampala. He is a colleague of mine in Sudan’s photography circle, and we initially connected through social media. He told me that many Sudanese live in this neighborhood. Ammar invited me to visit his building, and as soon as I stepped into its courtyard, I felt the same sensation I get when stepping into courtyards in Khartoum. I could hear Sudanese voices coming from open doors and windows. Ammar explained that most of the building’s residents are Sudanese. I told him it was comforting to see this — it breaks the sense of alienation in a foreign place. It felt like a small Sudan within Kampala. © Salih Basheer
KENYA. Nairobi. October 25, 2024. Khartoum has been emptied of its residents since the outbreak of war on April 15, 2023. Most of its residents have been displaced to safe cities in the north and east, and others outside Sudan, while some have gone missing and some have been killed, caught in the middle of the fighting between the two armed forces. © Salih Basheer
UGANDA. Kampala. November 19, 2024. Self-portait, hostel room. I arrived in Kampala on November 19, 2024, at 11:30 a.m., after a 17-and-a-half-hour bus ride from Nairobi across the Kenyan-Ugandan border at the Busia crossing. The journey began at 6:30 p.m. and ended at 11:30 a.m. the following day. I did not get enough sleep throughout the journey due to the bumpy road. Every time I closed my eyes, I would wake up from the vibrations of the bus or the pain in my neck caused by the uncomfortable seat. Upon arriving in Kampala, I decided to spend the night before continuing my journey to the town of Bweyale in central-western Uganda, I rented a room in a hostel called Big Be’nn Guest House for the night in Kampala. © Salih Basheer
KENYA. Nairobi. September 25, 2024. Two Rapid Support Forces soldiers celebrating a burning of a residential house. The image is a collage I made of screenshots of videos posted on social media by the RSF. © Salih Basheer
SUDAN. Khartoum. March 18, 2021. RSF soldier. © Salih Basheer
FINLAND. Tampere. July 28, 2025. Rapid Support Forces soldiers at the city entrance checkpoint. An imaginary drawing by Omar, as described in phone calls by his brother, who is still in Darfur. © Salih Basheer
SUDAN. Al Qadarif. March 04, 2025. A camp for internally displaced persons on the outskirts of Gedaref city. © Salih Basheer
UGANDA. Kiryandongo. November 23, 2024. Most of the refugees in the camp suffer from the problem of clean water and the long distance they had to go to fetch water. © Salih Basheer
SUDAN. Khartoum. April 13, 2019. RSF soldier. © Salih Basheer
KENYA. Nairobi. October 14, 2024. "I didn't want to leave Khartoum, because my father did not want to leave the house at all. There was no one in the whole neighborhood except me and my father. In Oum-Bada, we were staying in the middle of the Rapid Support Forces control zone. If you don't come across them in the street, they come to your house at least five times a day. They would come wanting to rob, with their weapons, they point it out, they take away whoever they want and they leave. In our area, we were all armed because that was the only way you could protect yourself from theft and looting. They killed our neighbor and raped a girl who lived next to us and my brother was shot in the leg. In the end, we got all the women out of the area and took them to the areas controlled by the army Al-Thawra neighborhood. Only the men remained in the area. I left Sudan three months ago, in June 2024. I had friends here in Nairobi who found me an artistic residency with a grant and helped me get out of Khartoum. That was the reason my father agreed to finally get out". _Omar © Salih Basheer
KENYA. Nairobi. October 14, 2024. © Salih Basheer

Photographer: Salih Basheer
Nationality: Sudanese
Based in: Khartoum, Sudan and Tampere, Finland
Website: www.magnumphotos.com/salih-basheer
Instagram: @_salihbasheer

Salih Basheer, born in 1995 in Omdurman, is a Sudanese photographer. After finishing high school in Sudan, he moved to Cairo in 2013 and received his Bachelor’s degree in Geography from Cairo University in 2017. During his studies in Egypt, he started as a self-taught photographer, and subsequently studied photojournalism in Denmark.
In 2021, Basheer received the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund student grant for his personal project “22 Days in Between.” For the same project, Basheer was awarded the Everyday Projects Grant, In January 2023, Basheer published 22 Days in Between, the first ever photobook by a Sudanese photographer, and the book was awarded the 2023, Les Rencontres d’Arles Photo-Text Book Award.
In June 2022, the British Journal of Photography presented Basheer as one of 15 upcoming photographers, In 2024, he joined Magnum as a nominee.