Tens of thousands of people have starved to death during Sudan’s civil war. And thousands of civilians have died of diseases like cholera or been tortured and killed by militiamen.
Knowledge has been lost as well, such as about tropical diseases and ancient and medieval civilizations:
The Mycetoma Research Center (MRC) in Khartoum—the world’s sole facility dedicated to studying the debilitating tropical disease—has been destroyed in Sudan’s two-year civil war, its director confirmed, Arab News reported. The conflict between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has left the center in ruins, with critical biological banks containing 40 years of research data lost.
Mycetoma, a neglected tropical disease caused by bacterial or fungal infections through skin cuts, leads to severe tissue damage, swollen limbs, and deformities. The MRC, established in 1991, treated 12,000 patients annually and hosted global training programs.
Dr. Ahmed Fahal, the center’s director, described the destruction as “difficult to bear,” emphasizing the setback for global health efforts. The WHO had previously collaborated with Sudan to combat mycetoma, which affects farmers and herders across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
The war has displaced over 12 million people and crippled Sudan’s healthcare system.
The Rapid Support Forces rendered uninhabitable much of Sudan’s capital city, once home to millions of people. It stole the copper wiring connecting homes and businesses to electric supply lines. During the occupation of the city by the RSF militia, “Virtually everything of value was stripped from many homes and businesses across the city: from jewelry to water pipes and metal roofs. Electric cables were ripped from the walls and dug from the ground in Aldy’s home and in virtually every occupied building, stripped for copper. Heaps of plastic wiring have been dumped across the city.” Up to one million tons” of copper was “stolen from Khartoum,” says a state official. As a result, much of the city is as dark at night as cities in the Medieval ages.
“Even Sudan’s treasures were pillaged. The national museum in central Khartoum held close to 100,000 artifacts, dating back more than 4,500 years: mummies, sacred instruments and ancient tools from the Islamic, Christian and Meroitic eras of Sudanese history. Most of it was taken — or vandalized. The arms of towering granite statues of Nubian royalty at the entrance to the museum were hacked off.”
The RSF
reportedly sold priceless artifacts to wealthy people in the Middle East and Africa on the black market, offering some artifacts online or on social media. It is using its sales revenue to finance its civil war against Sudan’s military, which was driven out of most of Sudan’s capital city.
This is a huge blow for archeology. People think of Egypt when it comes to archeology, but Sudan is very important, too. For example, “More than 200 pyramids were built in Sudan, as opposed to the 118 pyramids in all of Egypt, during the ancient reign. They were built by members of the Kingdom of Kush, an ancient Nubian civilisation that ruled the areas along the Nile River from 1070 B.C. to 350 A.D. and started even 500 years after the Egyptians.” Mummies were also found in Sudan.
Middle East Eye reported:
Sudanese Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters have reportedly looted the National Museum of Sudan in Khartoum and smuggled some of its artifacts across the country’s southern border. Backed by the United Arab Emirates, the paramilitary RSF has been at war with Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) since April last year.
The SBC, Sudan’s national broadcaster, reported on Sunday that “a large-scale looting and smuggling operation” affected contents of the museum…the operation took place in the RSF-controlled area earlier this year.
“Satellite images have confirmed that trucks loaded with items left the museum early this year, heading toward the border with South Sudan,” the report said, adding that the trucks were carrying exhibits from the museum….The news outlet said it has obtained footage confirming the sale of the museum’s contents….The RSF was previously accused of looting the museum in April 2023, at the beginning of the war, but it denied the claims and insisted that it was carrying out its responsibility of safeguarding the building and its contents.
According to footage seen by MEE, RSF fighters last year raided the M Bolheim Bioarchaeology Laboratory in Khartoum, where human remains, including bones and skeletons, are thought to date from 3300-3000 BCE.
The National Museum of Sudan is one of the largest and oldest museums in the country. Its collection includes archaeological artifacts from different periods of Sudanese history, from the Stone Age to the Islamic period.
Fighting between the RSF and SAF has displaced more than 10 million people, and brought more than a third of the 48 million population to the brink of famine.
Sudan faces the world’s worst famine, with a Dutch researcher predicting that between 6 million and 10 million of Sudan’s 50 million people could die by 2027.
The RSF interfered with harvests in Sudan’s Jazira state, which is “home to one of the largest irrigation systems in the world,” reported CNN. Thousands of farmers fled the RSF into areas controlled by Sudan’s military, which is not very kind to civilians, either.
Tens of thousands of Sudanese have previously died of starvation during the war. Thousands of bodies were left decomposing in morgues in the country’s capital. At least 150,000 civilians were killed in fighting between Sudan’s warring factions.
Frankenstein’s monster has turned on its creator, in Sudan. Over a decade ago, Sudan’s military created the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a genocidal militia it used to wipe out villages inhabited by some African tribes in Sudan’s Darfur region. Now, this Frankenstein’s monster, the RSF, is fighting Sudan’s military in a civil war, taking over the country’s west, and temporarily seizing Sudan’s capital and its breadbasket region. It is slaughtering males from western Sudan’s black African Masalit tribe. And it is turning some women into sex slaves, while raping others.
The RSF committed mass killings and rapes to drive the Masalit ethnic group from Sudan into the neighboring country of Chad. At a single camp for displaced people in Western Sudan, the RSF slaughtered 1600 people, almost all Masalit. It killed many thousands of Masalit in and around the city of El Geneina, the biggest city in Sudan’s West Darfur region.
