In a dimly lit office nestled within the French National Institute for Art History, Sudanese archaeologist Shadia Abdrabo meticulously examines a photograph of pottery crafted in her homeland around 7,000 B.C.
Her fingers type a precise description of the Neolithic artefact into a spreadsheet, a small but vital act in a race against time.
As the devastating conflict between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) continues to rage, Abdrabo, a curator from Sudan’s National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM), is undertaking a year-long research grant in France.
Her singular mission is to construct an exhaustive online database of the African nation’s archaeological sites, museum collections, and historical archives.
The war, which erupted in April 2023, swiftly led to the looting and destruction of numerous museums.
While the full extent of what has been lost remains unclear, Abdrabo states that her urgent task is to ascertain precisely what has gone missing.
“We have to work fast to secure our collections. We’ve already lost two museums and we don’t want to lose more,” Abdrabo told The Associated Press.
She confirmed that two regional museums in El Geneina and Nyala have been almost entirely obliterated. In Khartoum, the National Museum, which housed an estimated 100,000 objects before the conflict, was ransacked by militias who subsequently posted videos online showing their fighters inside the storeroom.
The National Museum’s collection spanned millennia, featuring pieces from prehistoric times, including artefacts from the Kerma Kingdom and the Napatan era, when Kushite kings governed the region.
It also held treasures from the Meroitic civilisation, responsible for Sudan’s pyramids, alongside later Christian and Islamic objects.
Among its most invaluable items were mummies dating back to 2,500 B.C., considered some of the world’s oldest and most archaeologically significant, as well as royal Kushite treasures.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has voiced grave concerns over reports of widespread plundering, stating that the “threat to culture appears to have reached an unprecedented level.”
Abdrabo expressed her profound sorrow, remarking, “My heart was broken, you know? It’s not just objects that we lost. We lost research, we lost studies, we lost many things.”
The conflict’s personal toll on Abdrabo is immense. Last month, hundreds were killed and over 80,000 displaced following the RSF’s capture of North Darfur’s capital, El Fasher.
“I’m from Nubia, from the north, an area filled with monuments, archaeological sites and ancient life,” she explained. This region was once home to some of the world’s earliest kingdoms, rivalling ancient Egypt in power and wealth.
Abdrabo was working at the National Museum in Khartoum when the war began.
“We thought it would finish soon… but then life started getting really difficult: not just the bombing, but there was no electricity, no water,” she recounted. She fled north with her three sisters, first to Atbara, then to Abri, and eventually to Port Sudan.
During this tumultuous period, Abdrabo and her NCAM colleagues worked tirelessly to safeguard Sudan’s 11 museums and sites, some of which hold UNESCO World Heritage status.
Their efforts involved moving precious pieces to secure rooms and secret locations. However, Ali Nour, a Sudanese cultural heritage advocate, believes these protective measures were too slow.
“While applications were being drafted, sites were being emptied. While risk assessments were reviewed, entire archives vanished,” Nour wrote in an article for the UK-based International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works.
In response, UNESCO has conducted inventories, trained police and customs officers to identify stolen antiquities, and appealed to collectors “to refrain from acquiring or taking part in the import, export or transfer of ownership of cultural property from Sudan.”
Yet, researcher Meryam Amarir notes that, unlike similar cultural emergencies in Afghanistan and Iraq, “Sudan has not benefited from strong media coverage denouncing the degradation and plundering of its cultural heritage. This lack of visibility has reduced the international response.”
Ancient Sudan, through trade and military activity, maintained strong connections with Egypt, the Mediterranean world, and Mesopotamia, serving as a primary source of gold for the region, according to Geoff Emberling of the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan.
“If we’re interested in these ancient cultures, then we have to be interested in Sudan,” said Emberling, who is involved with the recently established Sudan Cultural Emergency Recovery Fund.
This task force, requested by NCAM, aims to unite institutions, scholars, and donors in urgent recovery efforts for Sudan’s heritage.
Emberling stressed the critical nature of Abdrabo’s work: “What Shadia Abdrabo is doing is urgently essential — establishing what’s missing. And with a team of about 15 Sudanese now working in the museum in Khartoum to clean and restore what has been damaged, they will soon be able to compare what remains there now.”
Abdrabo has secured funding until April 2026 to complete the data compilation and platform development, but she fears it may not be enough time.
The work is painstaking; some datasets arrive as spreadsheets, others as handwritten inventories or decades-old photographs. While colleagues at institutions like the Louvre and the British Museum offer support, she largely works alone.
“I’m trying to finish this database but it’s a lot. I’ve done about 20% of the work. Just for the national museums, I’ve recorded 1,080 objects so far… and then I have to do other museums, sites, archives… I need to add pictures, ID numbers, coordinates…” As winter descends on Paris, the crisis in Sudan remains Abdrabo’s driving force.
“We are working on tracking what has been looted,” she stated, her voice heavy with emotion.
“I cry when I talk about this. My only goal and message is to bring back as much as possible, to do as much as I can for Sudan, but it’s not easy for us.”
Beyond the direct conflict, the consequences of war, such as displaced populations and the presence of militias, further endanger the country’s heritage.
“It’s not safe for the art to be in unsecure locations,” she added, concluding with a stark reminder: “Until the war finishes we just don’t know what is going to happen.”
