The airport, unusual for being embedded in the middle of a major capital city rather than safely isolated on its outskirts, had long been identified as strategically vital. It handled virtually all international traffic in and out of Sudan. When the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces moved from political rivalry to open combat in April 2023, both knew the airport would be a prize. The RSF struck first. Two people were killed in the initial attack. Saudi, Badr Airlines, and SkyUp Airlines aircraft were damaged or destroyed on the tarmac. New York Times analysis of Maxar and Planet Labs satellite imagery taken two days later showed approximately twenty planes destroyed across the airport. The World Food Programme lost aircraft it used to deliver humanitarian aid across the region, a loss that would compound Sudan's suffering in ways that extended far beyond the runway.

By April 21, a week into the war, the destroyed or damaged aircraft in Khartoum included three Ilyushin Il-76Ms, two Antonov An-74s, and one An-12. The Sudan Airways fleet was decimated. Turkish evacuation flights from Wadi Seidna Air Base came under fire trying to rescue foreign nationals trapped in the capital. One Turkish plane's fuel system took damage requiring major repairs. Sudan's airspace was formally closed on April 17. A ceasefire declared on April 18 reduced fighting briefly but did not free the airport. By late April the question was no longer whether Khartoum International would reopen soon but whether, by the time the war ended, there would be an airport to reopen at all.

For almost two years, the RSF held Khartoum International. They did so in conditions of continuous fighting. On August 26, 2023, a major explosion near the airport damaged property across Khartoum, caused, according to the Sudanese Armed Forces, by a fire at an aviation fuel depot inside the airport compound. The SAF shelled and bombed RSF positions at the airport throughout the occupation, and the RSF returned fire. Civilians in the surrounding neighborhoods, already without reliable electricity, water, or medical care, endured artillery duels over their heads. The airport perimeter became one of the most dangerous places in a city that was already one of the most dangerous in the world. Hemedti, the RSF commander, periodically claimed the RSF held most of Khartoum's government buildings. Burhan, the SAF leader, disputed it. The airport remained contested ground.

By early 2025 the military balance had shifted. The Sudanese Armed Forces, reinforced and rearmed, pushed steadily closer to Khartoum. On March 25, 2025, SAF forces approached Jabal Awliya, south of Khartoum, which was the RSF's last point of connection with its supply lines into the capital. With supply lines threatened, the RSF commander at the airport ordered a retreat. Two civilians died in the final skirmishes at Khartoum International. The SAF took the airport. The next day, the SAF announced that it had fully recaptured Khartoum. What they inherited was an airport that would need years of reconstruction, surrounded by a city whose population had mostly fled. The runways were cratered. The terminal was gutted. The aircraft that had been parked there in April 2023 were charred metal.

An airport is not just a place. For a country like Sudan, whose land borders are often hostile or closed, whose roads are poor and whose rail system is rudimentary, an international airport is the main connection to the rest of the world. For two years, that connection was severed. Medical evacuations did not happen. Families could not be reunited. Businesses could not import what they needed. Humanitarian aid had to come by slower and more dangerous routes. When the New Khartoum International Airport was first planned, in 2005, it was meant to replace a facility that had grown dangerously encumbered by urban sprawl. In 2019 construction began. By 2021 it had been suspended. It remains unfinished. Whether Sudan rebuilds the old airport, completes the new one, or does both will depend on the country's political settlement, and that settlement remains, as of 2026, elusive.