How fighting devastated Sudan's priceless museums

Report from BBC News

By James Copnall

BBC Newsday presenter

Dated Saturday, 26 April 2025, 01:51 BST - full copy:

From prized artworks to bullet shells: how war devastated Sudan's museums

Image source, AFP Image caption, The Sudan National Museum (pictured here before it was looted) is home to important pieces from ancient Nubian civilisations

Imposing statues of rams and lions used to stand in the grounds of Sudan's National Museum - priceless artefacts from the time when Nubian rulers conquered what is now Egypt to the north, along with exquisite Christian wall paintings dating from many centuries ago.

On a typical day, groups of school children would stare in awe at this reminder of their nation's imposing past, tourists would file through one of Khartoum's must-sees, and on occasion concerts were held in the grounds.

But that was before war broke out two years ago.

As the Sudanese military reasserts its control over the capital, having finally chased out its rival the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the full scale of the destruction of two years of war is becoming clear.

Government ministries, banks and office blocks stand blackened and burned, while the museum – a symbol of the nation's proud history and culture – has been particularly hard hit.

Senior officials say tens of thousands of artefacts were either destroyed or shipped off to be sold during the time the RSF was in control of central Khartoum, where the museum is situated.

"They destroyed our identity, and our history," Ikhlas Abdel Latif Ahmed, director of museums at Sudan's National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums, told the BBC's Newsday programme.

Before the conflict, the National Museum was a gem.

Located at the very heart of Sudan – close to the Presidential Palace, and the confluence of the Blue Nile and White Nile rivers – it told a story of the succession of great civilisations that inhabited this area over time.

Now, when museum officials made an inspection visit, they were greeted with shattered glass, bullet cases on the floor and traces of looting everywhere.

"The building was very unique and very beautiful," Ms Ahmed said.

"The militia [the description Sudanese officials give to the RSF] took so many of the unique and beautiful collections, and destroyed and damaged the rest."

Image source, JULIE ANDERSON 
Image caption, The museum's entrance before the war began...

Image source, IKHLAS ABDEL LATIF AHMED 
Image caption, ... and after

Looting has been reported at other Sudanese museums and ancient sites. Last September the UN's world heritage organisation, Unesco, warned of a "threat to culture" and urged art dealers not to import or export artefacts smuggled out of Sudan.

Before the war, the National Museum was undergoing rehabilitation, and so many of its treasures were boxed up.

That may have made it easier for the collections to be removed.

Sudanese officials say precious artefacts from the National Museum were taken away to be sold.

They strongly suspect RSF fighters took some of the valuables to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE has been widely accused of funding the RSF, although both parties have always denied these accusations.

"We had a strong room for the gold collection, they managed to open it and took all the gold," Ms Ahmed said.

"Maybe they kept it for themselves, or maybe they traded it in the market."

So the whereabouts of pieces like a gold collar from the pyramid of King Talakhamani at Nuri, which dates to the 5th Century BC, are unknown.

Asked about the value of what was taken, Ms Ahmed replied simply: "There is no value for the museum artefacts, it's more expensive than you could imagine."

Image source, ROCCO RICCI © THE SUDAN NATIONAL MUSEUM 
Image caption, A collar from the pyramid of King Talakhamani
is among the missing gold pieces

Image source, AFP Image caption, Many of the artefacts that remain have been damaged

The de facto government of Sudan says it will contact Interpol and Unesco to attempt to recover artefacts looted from the National Museum and elsewhere.

However recovering the artefacts seems a difficult and perhaps even dangerous task, with little immediate prospect of success.

The government, and other Sudanese observers, say the RSF's attacks against museums, universities and buildings like the National Records Office are a conscious attempt to destroy the Sudanese state - but, again, the RSF denies this.

Amgad Farid, who runs the Fikra for Studies and Development think-tank, is particularly critical of the looting.

"The RSF's actions transcend mere criminality," he wrote in a piece shared by his organisation.

"They constitute a deliberate and malicious assault on Sudan's historical identity, targeting the invaluable heritage of Nubian, Coptic, and Islamic civilisations spanning over 7,000 years, constituting a cornerstone of African and global history, enshrined within these museums.

"This is not an incidental loss amid conflict - it is a calculated endeavour to erase Sudan's legacy, to sever its people from their past, and to plunder millennia of human history for profit."

Image source, IKHLAS ABDEL LATIF AHMED 
Image caption, The extent of the looting became apparent after
the RSF was forced out of Khartoum

The story of the National Museum – taken over by armed men, its gold and valuables looted and stolen – mirrors the individual stories of so many Sudanese in this conflict: they have been forced to flee, their houses occupied, their gold stolen.

According to the UN, nearly 13 million people have been forced from their homes since the fighting began in 2023, while an estimated 150,000 people have been killed.

"The war is against the people of Sudan," Ms Ahmed says, bemoaning the war's human cost, as well as the unimaginable loss of centuries of heritage.

She - along with other like-minded individuals - intend to restore the National Museum and other looted institutions.

"Inshallah [God willing] we will get all our collections back," she said.

"And we build it more beautiful than before."

More about the war in Sudan from the BBC:

A simple guide to what is happening in Sudan

BBC finds fear, loss and hope in Sudan's ruined capital after army victory

Sudanese eating charcoal and leaves to survive, aid agency warns

The mother and children trapped between two conflicts

Will recapture of presidential palace change course of Sudan war?

Sudan's 'invisible crisis' - where more children are fleeing war than anywhere else

View original: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y4lxxj055o

End

Corruption is driving force behind Sudanese atrocities -George Clooney & John Prendergast of The Sentry

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: In an audio conversation conducted by BBC Newsday presenter James Copnall with US peace activists George Clooney and John Prendergast, James was told about those profiting from conflict in South Sudan and that corruption is the driving force behind the atrocities in South Sudan. In my view, it could also apply to Sudan. 

Here is a transcript I made from the audio originally released 20 Sep 2019. An undated copy was published at BBC Sounds online two days ago. Much of it applies to the situation today. Apologies if I mistakingly attributed any parts. The American accents were so similar I had to guess who said what. 

____________

From: BBC World Service Newsday

Release date 20 September 2019

Re-released two days ago, circa 09 May 2024 - here is a full copy:

George Clooney tells Newsday about those profiting from conflict in South Sudan

The corrupt financial transactions between some government officials and foreign companies should be targeted as the most effective way to curb the violence in South Sudan. 

This is the conclusion of research by The Sentry, an advocacy and investigation organisation based in the United States, which names individuals and businesses - including foreign state-owned oil companies - which it says have plundered the resources of the country for personal gain. 

Newsday's James Copnall spoke to George Clooney - the film star who co-founded The Sentry - and the organisations director John Prendergast.

Photo: George Clooney (R) and John Prendergast. Credit: Getty Images

_____________

Transcript

JOHN PRENDERGAST: These war profiteers, these people who profit from human misery are extremely vulnerable in one way. They use the international financial system to move the proceeds of their financial crimes. When they do that in US dollars, and they do it in pounds, and they do it in euros, they become subject to the regulatory authorities and the banking systems, any money laundering efforts and we can work directly with governments and with banks to close those avenues, illicit financial flows off, and actually freeze and seize those assets so that it creates a real consequence, a real level of accountability for these kinds of crimes.

BBC: George, your activism has been around South Sudan and other issues too for many issues for many years was there something in particular that surprised you here?

GEORGE CLOONEY: Well, what’s an interesting thing, we’ve gone through a series of different versions of how we try to go after and stop these atrocities. We’ve tried putting satellite up in the air, we’ve tried, we’ve tried a lot of different things. Sometimes we’ve been successful, ultimately we’ve failed clearly because there’s an awful lot of violence that still goes on there. What became clear was that once we realised that we put on the front page of newspaper “troop build ups and mass graves” and nothing happened that they thought they could act with impunity [BBC: they could, couldn’t they? GC: they could and they have] but what’s also clear is if you sit down with a bank and you say well tomorrow I am going to hold a press conference that says you are laundering one hundred million dollars and I’m going to announce tomorrow that either you are doing something about it or not or you are complicit, it’s amazing how quickly they say you know what we don’t need to be in the business anymore of South Sudan.

JOHN PRENDERGAST: The whole system has been established in South Sudan to loot and if you can start to create a consequence for looting, you’re going to make a difference, you’re going to start to impact the calculations of folks that are making decisions about how they are going to run South Sudan.

BBC: [unclear] from Kenya, from Uganda, countries in the region, sometimes where the money goes, sometimes who may disagree with the conclusions you’re coming up with?

JOHN PRENDERGAST: So this is a really important point because the politicians left to their own devices in those neighbouring countries with business as usual. But Kenyans want the Kenyan banking sector to be the financial one-stop shopping for the entire region so they have to open themselves up to the international regulatory authorities, there is something called the Financial Action Task Force, we’ll put everybody to sleep if we talk about it, but the Kenyans are terrified if they get a bad grade from the Financial Action Task Force their whole banking sector is going to suffer. So suddenly they are like, okay yeah maybe we are in business with, some of our politicians are in league with these folks who are stealing from South Sudan but our entire future financial sector is at risk if we keep doing business. That’s a very significant counterweight and it gives us a chance to do something real.

BBC: Is it your contention that in the current situation people really shouldn’t be doing business in South Sudan at all because people will be saying this country needs people coming in?

JOHN PRENDERGAST: We want to encourage foreign investment, we want to encourage private sector development in South Sudan but if you talk to South Sudanese businessmen who aren’t on the take, if you talk to investors who want to do it clean they have no chance because the folks who are bringing suitcases full of money and putting it under the table and are hijacking these particular processes there’s no transparency.

BBC: [unclear] you cut out the financial dodgy dealing a big if ... there are still a lot of problems in South Sudan, ethnic tensions, political competition, this is a small part of a very big pond.

GEORGE CLOONEY: Except that the amount of money that’s coming in from and the kind of corruption, corruption is the driving force for these atrocities, you take away that giant piece of the puzzle and suddenly you know Salva Kiir doesn’t really have the same incentives and probably loses power. 

BBC: Even in the context where soldiers aren’t getting paid, when the economy has been bled dry already?

JOHN PRENDERGAST: Why are they not getting paid? Why is the economy being bled dry? Because of mass corruption. This is the cancer that eats away at the effectiveness, the potential effectiveness of the state. If you do not address it, which it has not been addressed, and then try to do things about everything else there is still this massive hole at the centre. And I think this is our argument. It is not a small thing, it’s not just a, it has repercussions for all these other things that makes everything else worse because the state has been captured and when you have a captured state and the objective of that state is to enrich the leaders of that, everything else that you are trying to do, supporting foreign investment, development, infrastructure, even child nutrition, even education, is being obstructed and undermined by the cancer of corruption.

BBC: So this is a conversation being carried out about international businessmen, about banking systems internationally, what about the South Sudanese guys sitting in a village in [unclear] listening to this on the radio, watching this on TV in Juba, what can they do in your view to change the system there?

JOHN PRENDERGAST: Well, you’ve seen a great deal of opposition to the system in the form of, sadly, in the form of armed rebellion, in the form of development of militias whether they are defending their own territory or attacking wanting to change the system. Sudan right to the north has created this incredible model where hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people kept demonstrating and kept marching in support of democracy and in support of peace despite tremendous repression and violence, state violence, against them. I feel like that the next wave in South Sudan in terms of people who are trying to make a difference because now if you try to make a difference if you try to challenge the system you’ll be killed or imprisoned. It’s a scary thing, people have to make choices. If you are going to take on the system you and your family will probably face severe repercussions but once the numbers get large and you start to see change as we’ve seen in Sudan and seen in other parts of Africa we may see a difference. I think that’s probably mass protest against war, against corruption, against dictatorship, is probably the thing that will make the biggest difference, it’s the people themselves that have got to take the reins and make the change.

BBC: You know what the South Sudanese government is going to say, don’t you, they’re going say, you going after us it’s regime change, western prominent personalities maybe backed by governments trying to bring us down, what do you say to that?

GEORGE CLOONEY:  If you think about what we’re saying is we think we should stop corruption. If the answer by the South Sudan government is you want regime change then you are saying that you are corrupt. That’s basically what you are saying. We’re not saying that, we are saying that we should stop corruption. 

Listen to the conversation here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p07ntymp

END

Sudan crisis: War crimes suspect free amid chaos

Report from BBC News

By JAMES GREGORY & JAMES COPNALL

Wednesday 26 April 2023 c.11:50 am BST UK 

Sudan crisis: War crimes suspect free amid chaos

IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES

Image caption, Haroun (left) in 2010 when he was governor of the South Kordofan region

A former Sudanese politician wanted for alleged crimes against humanity has said that he and other former officials are no longer in jail - following reports of a break-out. 

Ahmed Haroun was among those being held in Kober prison in the capital Khartoum who are facing charges by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

A ceasefire between fighting military factions largely appears to be holding. 

But there are doubts about both sides' commitment to a lasting peace. 

The conflict - which began on 15 April - arose from a bitter power struggle between the leaders of Sudan's regular army and a rival paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Reports emerged this week of a prison break at Kober - where Ahmed Haroun was serving a sentence alongside Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's former president. 

On Tuesday, Haroun confirmed in a statement aired on Sudan's Tayba TV that he and other Bashir loyalists who served under him had left the jail - but said he would be ready to appear before the judiciary whenever it was functioning.

In an audio message circulating on social media, Haroun claimed the group had been aided in their escape by prison guards and the armed forces.

"We made a decision to protect ourselves due to lack of security, water, food and treatment, as well as the death of many prisoners in Kober," Haroun told al-Sudani, a daily newspaper with ties to Bashir.

Haroun was a key player in the Sudanese government's brutal response to two long-running and still unresolved civil wars - in Darfur (from 2003) and South Kordofan (from 2011).

He was indicted by the ICC in 2007 for his alleged role in the atrocities in Darfur - described as the first genocide of the 21st Century - when he was the country's interior minister. 

He faces 20 counts of crimes against humanity and 22 counts of war crimes, with charges including murder, rape, persecution and torture. He denies the charges.

Mukesh Kapila, a former UN coordinator for Sudan, described Haroun as "extremely dangerous" and "unreliable", adding he had "many followers who have been lurking for the last two decades". 

"This, plus other armed groups now coming out of the woodwork, really changes the dynamics in ways that are difficult to predict at the moment - but it's really bad news," he told the BBC World Service's Newsday programme.

Haroun was arrested in 2019, after veteran leader Bashir was ousted by the military amid mass protests. The country has experienced frequent unrest and several other coup attempts since then. 

Bashir - who is 79 - had been serving a jail sentence for corruption. He is at a military hospital in police custody - having been moved there before the latest hostilities broke out, according to Sudan's army.

He is also accused by the ICC of leading a campaign of mass killing and rape in Sudan's Darfur region, which he denies.

Sudan's interior ministry has accused the RSF of breaking into five prisons in the past few days - including Kober, which Bashir had already left. 

Police said the raid led to the killing of two prison warders, and that the RSF released all who where being held there.

The RSF has denied the allegations, claiming instead that the military "forcibly evacuated" the facility as part of a plan to restore Bashir to power. 

An army spokesman denied any army involvement, saying the military "does not have any supervision over prisons". He said the military was coordinating with police to return inmates to prisons. 

But plenty of Sudanese will believe this is just the latest example of Gen Burhan, leader of Sudan's armed forces, trying to restore Bashir's Islamist lieutenants to the forefront of Sudanese politics. 

The ceasefire in Sudan has allowed several countries to evacuate their nationals from the country. Several evacuation flights carrying UK nationals from Sudan have landed in Cyprus, while a boat evacuating more than 1,600 people from dozens of countries has now arrived in Saudi Arabia. 

Both Germany and France say all their citizens have now left the country.

IMAGE SOURCE, AFP 

Image caption, Hundreds of people evacuated from Sudan have arrived in Saudi Arabia by boat

Image caption,

Volker Perthes, who is the UN special envoy to Sudan and is currently in the country, said on Tuesday that the 72-hour pause in fighting still appeared to be holding together. 

But gunfire and explosions continued to be reported in Khartoum and the nearby city of Omdurman. 

"There is yet no unequivocal sign that either [side] is ready to seriously negotiate, suggesting that both think that securing a military victory over the other is possible," said Mr Perthes. 

Mr Perthes said that many homes, hospitals and other public facilities have been damaged or destroyed in residential areas near the army headquarters and airport in the capital Khartoum.

The ceasefire, which began at midnight local time (22:00 GMT) on Monday, is the latest attempt to bring stability to the country after fighting broke out nearly two weeks ago. 

The White House said on Wednesday the ceasefire should be extended to address the humanitarian crisis, news agency Reuters reported. 

National security spokesman John Kirby also confirmed a second American had died in Sudan on Tuesday. 

At least 459 people have died in this conflict so far, though the actual number is thought to be much higher.

Thousands more are reported to have fled Sudan and the UN has warned that this is likely to continue. Lines of buses and other vehicles are continuing to leave Khartoum despite rocketing prices of fuel and bus tickets. 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it expects there to be "many more" deaths due to outbreaks and a lack of services. 

More than 60% of health facilities in Khartoum are closed, it said. 

There is also concern for those who are left behind, with an estimated 24,000 pregnant women currently in Khartoum who are expected to give birth in the coming weeks.

View original: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-65394913

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