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 museum housed over half a million artefacts spanning 7,000 years of African history that, according to former antiquities director Hatim al-Nour, "shaped the deep history of Sudanese identity".

Colossal statues of Kushite war deities now stand sentinel over the neglected grounds, beneath a ceiling bearing the blackened scars of shelling.

The rest of the museum's precious contents have disappeared, the vast majority seemingly without a trace.

- 'War crime' -

Central Khartoum, where the museum stands along with Sudan's main state........

© Al Monitor