Sudan’s National Museum Collection Looted as Ongoing Civil War Persists

The Sudanese Rapid Support Forces were accused of looting the National Museum of Sudan in Khartoum amid a raging civil war in that nation. Sudan's national broadcaster, SBC, cited a large-scale looting and smuggling operation targeting the museum, with multiple valuable artifacts said to have been trafficked across the nation's southern border.

Satellite images confirmed that trucks loaded with items left the museum earlier this year, heading toward South Sudan.

ART News reported that it is unclear how much of the museum and its contents were looted, but sources close to the matter said the artefacts have begun to appear for sale online.

Sudan's Cultural Heritage Under Attack

The RSF has denied any involvement in looting with a claim in April this year that it was carrying out its role of protection of cultural property in Khartoum. However, the Middle East Eye shared footage in June 2023 showing RSF fighters raiding the M Bolheim Bioarchaeology Laboratory in Khartoum and thus cast doubt on the role of RSF in protecting the nation's heritage.

Sudan's cultural institutions have faced repeated assaults since the power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF escalated into a civil war. In the same report from Middle Easy Eye, cultural archives, such as those held by the Mohamed Omer Bashir Centre for Sudanese Studies and the Abdul Karim Mirghani Center, have also been lost due to looting and bombings.

"While there is a lot of awareness about cultural heritage and the need to protect it in times of crisis, one of our biggest challenges is that culture is still not mainstreamed into the language of humanitarian aid," said Aparna Tandon of ICCROM.

While the Sudan National Corporation of Antiquities and Museums has tried to evacuate artifacts with several international preservation organizations, continued fighting has prevented this process.