Comboni College of Science and Technology in Khartoum (Sudan).
By P. Jorge Carlos Naranjo Alcaiderector of the CCST
Comboni College is an educational institution created by the Comboni Missionaries in 1929 that, over time, has trained thousands of Sudanese and refugees from the region through its three sections: primary school, secondary school and university. In the first days of April 2023, the 2,686 students who populated it every day, their families, the teachers and the Comboni community that managed the educational complex awaited the signing of a transitional constitutional text between the civil platforms, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The outbreak of war
The lives of all of them were abruptly affected by the outbreak of war on the 15th of that month. The agreement was never signed. The walls of the two schools and the different faculties of the university stopped absorbing the voices of children, young people and teachers to receive the impact of the bullets, mortars, missiles and grenades that the two opposing factions exchanged.
The students and their families became part of the 12 million displaced people and four million refugees caused by the conflict. 87% of university students across the country were forced to leave their place of study, including those in the university section of our centre, the Comboni College of Science and Technology (CCST).
The latter, fleeing to save their lives, sometimes at the point of Kalashnikov, did not have their academic records sealed by the CCST or the Ministries of Universities and Foreign Affairs. Therefore, they found it impossible to continue their studies in their places of refuge. It was also not easy to find a job in towns that received thousands of displaced people or refugees. What future could they dream of?
“We want to study”
In June 2023, we distributed an online questionnaire to university students asking them if they wanted and could continue their studies remotely despite the conflict. 73% responded positively. Four months later, the Ministry of Universities and Scientific Research authorized educational institutions to teach their programs online and move their headquarters to safe places in the country. The CCST reorganized its activities from Port Sudan, a city located 1,000 kilometers northeast of Khartoum on the Red Sea coast, where the Comboni Missionaries already had another community.
The CCST continued its university programs through a digital teaching platform to connect students and teachers scattered across the country or abroad. In this way, more than 300 students have managed to complete five semesters in these three years of conflict, many of them without access to a personal computer and having to study with a smartphone.
In June 2025, construction of a new CCST headquarters was completed with funding from the German and Italian bishops’ conferences. From these new facilities, university courses are managed online for students who had enrolled and begun their academic programs before the war in the degrees of Nursing, Computer Science, English Language and Literature, and Information Technology. The CCST Nursing Department has also opened a palliative care clinic and trained hundreds of local health workers and volunteers in this field in collaboration with the Ministry of Health of the Red Sea State.
While in degrees such as Computer Science it has been possible to completely convert face-to-face programs into virtual ones, Nursing students must carry out practical training in a laboratory and in health centers in Port Sudan, which is why they have had to travel from their places of refuge to the coastal city for their practical training at the end of each semester. Some of these students have had to travel more than 1,600 kilometers and cross territories occupied by up to three different armies.
In December 2024, the first call for Selectivity exams took place since the war began. This has made it possible to enroll new students. In January 2026, 214 students have joined, almost all of them present in Port Sudan. The most requested university degree is Nursing, a symptomatic fact in a country that lacks well-trained health professionals.
Reactivating Khartoum
In April 2025, the Sudanese Army regained control of the capital, which it had lost at the beginning of the war. Last January, the Government completed the transfer to Khartoum of the different ministries, temporarily relocated to Port Sudan. One and a half million people have returned to the capital, where the population is around five million. Now one of the priorities is reconstruction, including Comboni College (pictured, closed after the start of the war).
The university’s headquarters have been one of the buildings least affected by the missile impacts. The first step in the rehabilitation of the entire structure consists of the installation of solar panels to produce electrical energy. A first team from the College has been installed on the ground floor of the building to serve students who are back in Khartoum, manage a room for online teaching and supervise the cleaning, rehabilitation and reconstruction work of the different buildings of the educational complex.
Another challenge will be caring for the wounds that this war has opened. Throughout its almost centenary history, the CCST has always been characterized by welcoming students and teachers from populations in conflict. It has always been a school of reconciliation, tolerance, dialogue and peace. The work of material reconstruction will be combined with the training of people and healing of open wounds. Once the Khartoum site is operational again, plus the new one in Port Sudan, it will continue to train nurses through the degree programme, but with teaching staff from the two sites collaborating through the use of technology.
