Sudan Urges International Community to Support Efforts to Recover Looted Cultural Property

21 May 2025

Sudan News Agency (Khartoum)

Vienna, May 20, 2025 (SUNA) - Sudan has called on the international community to support its efforts with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) to recover Sudanese cultural property ransacked from museums, particularly the National Museum, smuggled abroad, and some put up for sale online after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) rebels took control of the capital, Khartoum.

This call includes strengthening cooperation between law enforcement bodies, tracking smuggling routes, ensuring the recovery of stolen items, preventing further smuggling operations, and holding perpetrators, including rebels and their cross-border collaborators and smuggling networks, accountable.

This came in a statement delivered Tuesday by Sudan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations and International Organizations in Vienna, Ambassador Magdi Ahmed Mufaddal, before a meeting of the Commission on Criminal Justice and Crime Prevention dedicated to crimes related to the destruction and smuggling of plundered cultural property.

Meanwhile, and in response to his United Arab Emirates (UAE) counterpart, the ambassador reviewed a number of reports that confirm and document the UAE's support for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), particularly the report of the Panel of Experts formed pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1591, the Amnesty International report, and the France 24 report. He also addressed the efforts of some members of the US House of Representatives and Senate to halt arms exports from their country to the UAE due to its support for the RSF.

Read the original article on SNA.