How millennia of history vanished in Sudan’s war

In the scorched courtyard of Sudan’s National Museum in Khartoum, a towering black granite statue of Kush Pharaoh Taharqa now stands alone, surrounded by shards of broken glass and shattered stone.

Since the museum was looted in the early days of Sudan’s war between the army and paramilitaries in April 2023, thousands of priceless antiquities, many dating back to the 3,000-year-old Kingdom of Kush, have vanished.

Officials believe that some have been smuggled across borders into Egypt, Chad and South Sudan, but there is no trace of the vast majority of the pieces.

“Only the large, heavy objects that couldn’t be carried off were left behind,” said Rawda Idris, a public prosecutor and member of Sudan’s Committee for the Protection of Museums and Archeological Sites.

At its height, the mu