Reports of 'large-scale looting' at Sudan National Museum
There are reports of mass looting at the National Museum of Sudan in Khartoum amid the country's ongoing civil war and humanitarian crisis.
Satellite images have shown evidence of a "large-scale looting and smuggling operation" by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) military group at the museum, with some artefacts trafficked to South Sudan, according to a report this week by Sudan's national broadcaster, SBC, as reported in the Middle East Eye.
The national museum houses the world's largest and most comprehensive Nubian archaeological collection, along with artefacts from other ancient civilisations including the Kingdom of Kush (8th-4th century BCE) and the medieval Kingdom of Alwa.
The Nubian collection includes embalmed mummies dating back to 2,500 BC, making them among the earliest and most important such examples in the world.
The SBC report did not specify which items have been looted. It said that some of the museum's contents have been offered for sale online and on social media.
The RSF, which began a war against Sudan's state military in April last year, was first reported to have raided the museum in June 2023. Previous satellite analysis has found that a number of cultural heritage sites have suffered damage since the conflict began.
There is growing alarm that the country's cultural heritage could face the same fate as that of Iraq and Syria, which faced mass looting during conflicts there.
Last year, Sudan's museum authorities requested assistance from the Smithsonian Institution's Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab and the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative in monitoring 14 cultural sites in the country. The two Smithsonian bodies subsequently reviewed commercially available high-resolution satellite imagery for the 14 sites.
According to a report from the Smithsonian, which was compiled in December 2023 and made publicly available in June 2024, the Sudan National Museum, the Ethnographic Museum and the Old Republican Palace, all in Khartoum, have all been damaged since the civil war began.
In addition, Unesco has said it is "deeply concerned" about reports of military activity on the Island of Meroe, a World Heritage Site that includes the royal city of the Kushite kings at Meroe, the religious site of Naqa and the temple complex Musawwarat es Sufra.
Unesco is calling on the international community to be vigilant about the illicit trafficking of cultural property from Sudan.
A statement released by the UN body earlier this year said: "Given the high risks of looting and illicit trafficking of cultural property due to reduced security capacity at Sudanese heritage sites, Unesco calls for the vigilance of law enforcement agencies, art market actors and all cultural professionals to refrain from acquiring or taking part in the import, export or transfer of ownership of cultural property when they have reasonable cause to believe that the objects have been stolen, illegally alienated, clandestinely excavated or illegally exported from Sudan."
The organisation says it "has been mobilising within the framework of its mandate to support the culture, education, science and information sectors in Sudan".
The civil war in Sudan has so far displaced around 10 million people and led to as many as 40,000 deaths, according to recent estimates.
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