Sudanese culture being looted, sold online as conflict rages on

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
13 Sep 2024 09:42

Sudan's National Museum has suffered major looting amid the ongoing conflict in the country, with UNESCO highlighting an unprecedented threat to cultural heritage.

Listen

Tourists and locals observe the Republic Palace Museum in Khartoum, Sudan, Friday, April 10, 2015. (AP)

Sudan's invaluable archaeological treasures are being looted from museums, with smugglers transporting ancient artifacts out of the war-torn country and selling them online. Over a year of conflict has left the nation's antiquities vulnerable, as the war devastates the country.

"The Sudan National Museum has been the subject of major looting," said Ikhlas Abdel Latif, head of museums at the National Antiquities Authority, adding that "archaeological objects stored there have been taken in big lorries and transferred to the west and to border areas, particularly near South Sudan."

UNESCO, the United Nations's cultural body, explained 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."

UNESCO further urged "the public and the art market... in the region and worldwide to refrain" from trading in Sudanese artifacts.

On his part, Hassan Hussein, a researcher and former director of the National Antiquities Authority, explained that "because of the war, the museum and the artifacts are not being monitored."

Moreover, a Sudanese archaeologist, speaking anonymously for safety, informed AFP that pottery, gold items, and paintings being sold online seem to originate from the National Museum in Khartoum, though at least one statuette was identified as a replica.

OHCHR documents grave violations of human rights in Sudan

Moreover, as the conflict rages on in Sudan, Nada al-Nashif, United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, spoke of grave violations of human rights in Sudan amid the ongoing infighting between the government's Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the insurgent paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the country.

At the Enhanced Interactive Dialogue on Sudan, 57th session of the Human Rights Council, al-Nashif said that the respective allied armed movements and militias of the two sides are conducting the war "with total disregard for international law."

Al-Nashif said that her office and designated experts documented "violations of international humanitarian law and human rights violations and abuses by all parties to the conflict."

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) was "particularly alarmed" by the employment of "sexual violence as weapons of war" in Sudan.

"We have documented 97 incidents involving 172 victims, predominantly women and girls – which is a gross under-representation of the reality," al-Nashif revealed.

It said that the RSF and its allies committed 81% of these incidents, while credible reports indicated that SAF troops and allies committed similar acts.

Al-Nashif also warned of "ethnically motivated attacks and hate speech," especially targeting the Masalit community in western Darfur.