Precious antiquities from Sudanese museums looted during war

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Sudan’s priceless archaeological heritage is being plundered from museums, with looters loading statuettes and fragments of ancient palaces onto trucks, smuggling them out of the war-torn country and selling them online.

More than a year of war between rival generals has killed tens of thousands of people, forced millions more to flee their homes and left the country’s precious antiquities at the mercy of looters.

On Thursday, UNESCO, the United Nations cultural body, said that “the threat to culture appears to have reached an unprecedented level, with reports of looting of museums, heritage and archaeological sites and private collections.”

In the capital Khartoum, where fighting broke out in April 2023 between the army and paramilitary forces, the recently renovated National Museum of Sudan has had valuables stolen, archaeologists and officials say.

The museum houses prehistoric objects from the Paleolithic era and objects from the famous site of Kerma in northern Sudan, as well as Pharaonic and Nubian pieces.

First opened in 1971, the museum was founded in part to house artifacts salvaged from an area that was due to be flooded by the construction of the massive Aswan Dam in Egypt.

Today, his objects are threatened by war.

“The National Museum of Sudan has been the subject of major looting,” said Ikhlas Abdel Latif, director of museums at the National Antiquities Authority.

“The archaeological objects stored there were transported in large trucks to the west and to border areas, especially near South Sudan,” she told AFP.

The extent of the looting is difficult to determine because the museum is located in an area controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary organization.

Officials and experts have accused the RSF of looting the site. A security force spokesman declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

In May, RSF said it was “vigilant” to “protect and preserve the antiquities of the Sudanese people.”

Throughout history, combatants have used plunder to finance their war efforts.

UNESCO called on “the public and the art market… in the region and around the world to refrain” from any trade in Sudanese objects.

The agency also said it plans to hold training in the Egyptian capital Cairo for law enforcement and judicial officials from Sudan’s neighboring countries.

“Because of the war, the museum and the objects are not guarded,” says Hassan Hussein, a researcher and former director of the National Antiquities Authority.

The army, led by Sudan’s de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, is in conflict with the RSF, led by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The island of Meroe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to the capital of the ancient kingdom of Kush and dozens of its pyramids, is also under threat.

Exhibits and exhibits were stolen from the museum in Nyala, capital of South Darfur state, Abdel Latif said.

In Omdurman, just across the Nile from Khartoum, part of the Khalifa House museum was also destroyed, she said.

Last week, the Sudanese Museums Friends Association condemned “in the strongest terms” the looting taking place across the country.

Experts have expressed concern after discovering looted items being offered for sale online.

On the eBay auction site, a user offered items presented as Egyptian antiquities that, according to Sudanese media, were looted in Sudan.

AFP saw the listings, with items offered for a few hundred dollars, but was unable to independently verify the authenticity or origin of the items.

A Sudanese archaeologist, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, told AFP that the pottery, gold objects and paintings on sale appeared to come from the National Museum in Khartoum — although at least one statuette was an imitation.

He said he feared for the larger statues, which “need to be handled by specialists in a precise manner” and could be damaged if looters got their hands on them.

The issue is expected to be discussed at an upcoming conference in Germany, which Hussein will attend.

“The current state of the collections is a source of concern for anyone who cares about the heritage of humanity,” he said.