The civil war in Sudan, ongoing for almost three years, has inflicted devastating damage on the nation's museums and archaeological sites, resulting in the looting of thousands of invaluable cultural treasures. These losses are estimated at approximately $110 million, prompting researchers both within Sudan and internationally to urgently catalogue and recover what has been lost.

The Sudan National Museum in Khartoum stands as a stark testament to the conflict, bearing visible battle scars including holes from rocket fire and a shattered bay window. Its gardens are strewn with explosives. The museum, which houses an extensive collection spanning thousands of years of human history in the Nile Valley, was ransacked by paramilitaries from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) soon after the war erupted in April 2023. Following the army's recapture of the city from the RSF in March, museum employees were finally able to assess the extent of the damage.

Jamal Mohammed Zein, among the first staff members to return, described the scene: "Inside, all the locks had been broken and all the doors left wide open." He recounted finding the main storeroom, which typically holds over 100,000 archaeological artefacts, in disarray, with objects scattered across the floor, crates opened and looted, and many artefacts broken or chipped.

A committee of experts is currently compiling an inventory of the losses while employees work on cleaning and repairing remaining items. According to archaeologist Rihab Khidir, who heads the panel, at least 4,000 items are missing. "They completely ransacked the Kushite gold room, which housed hundreds of ornamental pieces," Khidir stated, detailing necklaces, rings, and other jewellery made entirely of gold, dating back to the Kush civilisation from the kingdoms of Napata and Meroe, originally found in royal burial chambers.

The museum was home to the world's most significant collection of artefacts from the ancient Nubian culture of Kush, whose pharaohs once conquered Egypt, alongside objects reflecting the diverse Islamic and Christian influences that have shaped Sudan's history.

Museum authorities possess evidence that at least three trucks laden with artefacts departed Khartoum in August 2023, heading west. The RSF are suspected of attempting to smuggle these treasures out of Sudan, selling them to foreign dealers to fund the ongoing conflict. International experts had previously issued appeals to the RSF, warning that "heritage is a red line" and emphasizing its cultural significance beyond the conflict. Despite the RSF's initial willingness to cooperate, the looting proceeded.

Beyond the National Museum, at least a dozen other heritage sites across Sudan have suffered damage or been plundered, contributing to the total estimated loss of nearly $110 million. In Darfur, a region ravaged by intense fighting, militias converted the regional museum of Nyala into a barracks. In El-Fasher, a city besieged for over a year before falling to the RSF in October, the palace of Ali Dinar, the last sultan of Darfur, was destroyed by shelling.

Ali Noor, secretary-general of the Sudanese committee of the Blue Shield, an NGO dedicated to protecting cultural heritage in emergencies, described the palace as "a symbol of the sovereignty of the Fur people and resistance to colonisation," suggesting the destruction in a country already divided by ethnic and religious rifts may be a deliberate act of "physical and cultural extermination."

Critics lament the lack of global attention to Sudan's heritage crisis, drawing parallels to the human suffering caused by the war. Nevertheless, a range of initiatives are underway, both domestically and internationally, to mitigate the damage. Experts from Sudan's National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums are actively documenting and relocating collections from at-risk sites.

Shadia Abdrabo, a curator from the National Museum now based in Paris on a French research grant, is compiling an online database of artefacts from all Sudanese museums to aid in identifying missing items. Unesco is providing funding for emergency measures to secure vulnerable world heritage sites, including the ancient royal city of Meroe and the pyramids at Gebel Barkal.

Furthermore, Unesco has supported the training of police and customs officers in Sudan and neighboring countries to detect stolen antiquities, and has urged international museums and collectors to reject suspicious items, with institutions like the Louvre and the British Museum offering support. An international task force has also been established to mobilize external institutions and donors.

These concerted efforts are beginning to yield results. Recently, the Sudanese government announced the recovery of 570 objects from the National Museum, representing approximately 30 percent of the lost items. These delicate figurines, vases, and scarab-shaped amulets were reportedly retrieved after months of investigation involving Interpol and Unesco. The government has also offered financial rewards to members of the public who return other looted objects or provide information regarding their whereabouts.

In a separate development, a virtual museum, featuring a portion of the National Museum's collection, went live earlier this month. Visitors can virtually explore around 500 of the museum's treasures in an online recreation of the building as it stood before the war, with a recreation of the famed Kushite gold room planned for later this year.

This project, commissioned before the conflict and supported by the French Section of the Sudanese Directorate of Antiquities (SFDAS), offers a crucial "source of hope" for Sudanese colleagues, enabling continued research and promotion of their heritage. It is also hoped that this public online record will complicate efforts by traffickers to sell looted items.

Despite these advancements, the reopening of the physical museum in Khartoum remains a distant prospect. For archaeologist Rihab Khidir, who continues her work documenting the scale of the losses, the paramilitaries fighting Sudan's war have failed to grasp the true value of what they have stolen or destroyed.

She asserts, "The Rapid Support Forces are foolish. Who do they want to rule? Those who have no history have no present. Heritage is our roots. They say their hearts are with their homeland. They say they want to govern the country, so why don't they protect our heritage? This stolen heritage, this civilisation, belongs to an entire people, and even to all of humanity."