|
Members of the Rapid Support Forces group that has been fighting
the army for seven weeks for control of Sudan entered the museum
on Friday, said deputy director Ikhlas Abdellatif, urging
combatants to protect the nation's heritage.
Museum staff do not know the situation inside the museum because
they halted work there after the conflict suddenly erupted on
April 15, forcing police guarding the facility to quit,
Abdellatif said.
The museum is in a large building on the banks of the Nile in
central Khartoum, near the central bank in an area where some of
the fiercest fighting has taken place.
Among its thousands of priceless relics are embalmed mummies
dating to 2,500 BC, making them among the oldest and
archaeologically most important in the world.
The museum also contains statues, pottery and ancient murals,
with artefacts from the stone age through to the Christian and
Islamic eras, said former director Hatim Alnour.
Roxanne Trioux, part of a French archaeological team that was
working in Sudan, said they had been monitoring satellite
pictures of the museum and had already seen potential signs of
damage there before Friday, with signs of burning.
"We don't know the extent of damage inside," she said.
Fighting has continued this week despite repeated truces
including one negotiated by Saudi Arabia and the United States
to which both sides signed up. The latest is due to expire
tonight.
After continued clashes, bombardment and occupation of civilian
buildings, Washington and Riyadh suspended the talks and the
U.S. said it was imposing sanctions on the two sides' business
interests.
On Friday the U.N. Security Council called on the warring
factions to cease hostilities to allow humanitarian access.
The war has already displaced 1.2 million people inside the
country and forced another 400,000 to flee into neighbouring
states, pushing Sudan to the brink of disaster and raising fears
of a wider conflict.
(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz in Dubai and Adam Makary in
Cairo, writing by Angus McDowall, editing by Giles Elgood)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
