March 27, 2025 النص العربي بالاسفل
Fikra for Studies and Development (FikraSD) expresses profound outrage and unequivocal condemnation of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for their systematic looting and destruction of the Sudanese National Museum, an act of cultural devastation exposed following the Sudanese Armed Forces’ (SAF) recapture of Khartoum in March 2025. The RSF’s rampage extends beyond this single institution, with reports confirming similar destruction and looting at the Presidential Museum, Khalifa House Museum, Sudan National History Museum, and Sudan Ethnographic Museum—each a vital repository of Sudan’s multifaceted legacy.
The RSF’s actions transcend mere criminality; they constitute a deliberate and malicious assault on Sudan’s historical identity, targeting the invaluable heritage of Nubian, Coptic, and Islamic civilizations spanning over 7000 years, constituting a cornerstone of African and global history, enshrined within these museums, alongside artifacts chronicling Sudan’s political, social, and ethnographic past. This is not an incidental loss amid conflict—it is a calculated endeavor to erase Sudan’s legacy, to sever its people from their past, and to plunder millennia of human history for profit. RSF forces pillaged irreplaceable artifacts, leaving the Sudanese National Museum’s galleries desolate. Credible reports indicate their illicit trafficking toward South Sudan and Chad for sale on the black market. These actions, exposed as the RSF pushed out from Khartoum, represent a grave violation of international legal frameworks, including the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, in addition to Article 8 of the Rome Statute that criminalizes the attacks, destruction, and looting of cultural property and defines them as war crimes.
These transgressions are not merely breaches of law; they are war crimes that demand accountability. Fikra for Studies and Development calls for urgent and decisive action from the international community. We implore UNESCO, INTERPOL, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch immediate investigations into the RSF’s cultural and agricultural plunder, to track and recover Sudan’s stolen artifacts and assess the broader scope of their destruction, and to pursue justice against those responsible, including any external entities complicit in these acts—such as the involvement of the UAE in supporting the RSF crimes, which warrants thorough scrutiny. FikraSD urges the Sudanese government to incorporate these crimes of destroying and looting Sudanese cultural heritage into its case against the UAE at the International Court of Justice, since they constitute a violation of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property that criminalize the destruction of cultural heritage as war crimes, in addition to the binding nature of Article 94 of the UN Charter.
We further appeal to governments, customs authorities, the INTERPOL, and other law enforcement agencies worldwide to collaborate with to implement emergency tracking and reporting mechanisms to recover looted artifacts before they disappear into black-market networks. The RSF must face the full weight of global censure for this unconscionable attack on humanity’s shared legacy and Sudan’s sustenance.
The RSF’s campaign of destruction extends beyond the museum to Sudan’s agricultural lifeline. On December 15, 2023, as the RSF invaded El Gezira state, they targeted the Agricultural Plant Genetic Resources Conservation and Research Centre (APGRC), commonly known as (The Seed Bank) in Wad Madani, looting and destroying this vital repository in the days and weeks that followed. The APGRC housed over 17,000 seed accessions of staple crops like sorghum, pearl millet, and cowpea, preserving Sudan’s genetic diversity, which is essential for food security and resilience against climate change. Its destruction has obliterated decades of agricultural research, crippled efforts to sustain farming in a nation already teetering on famine, and erased a critical resource for rebuilding post-conflict, leaving millions vulnerable to hunger and economic ruin.
We hold the Rapid Support Forces and their leadership, including General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemiditi), his two brothers Abdelrahim and El Goni, and inner circle, directly and unequivocally responsible—both criminally and politically—for these heinous acts that have inflicted immeasurable damage on Sudan’s cultural and agricultural foundations. The looting of museums and the destruction of the APGRC are not mere byproducts of war but deliberate crimes orchestrated by a militia intent on annihilating a nation’s identity and resilience. We call upon the international community—states, organizations, and civil society—to hold the RSF accountable for these atrocities, to reject any impulse to ignore or downplay these events for the sake of political convenience or geopolitical maneuvering, and to ensure that justice prevails over apathy. The world must not turn a blind eye; Sudan’s heritage and its people deserve nothing less than resolute action and unwavering commitment to redress these irreparable losses.
FikraSD expresses its unwavering commitment and determination to protect and preserve the Sudanese heritage. We vow to stand firm in our endeavors until the injustices perpetrated by the RSF are addressed and rectified.
Fikra for Studies and Development
March 27, 2025 |
