Sudan counts 4,000 missing artifacts after Khartoum battles

The shattered remains of antique pottery and shards of ancient statues lie among broken glass and bullet casings at Sudan's National Museum, not far from where the Blue and White Nile meet in the capital Khartoum.

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After over two years of a civil war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions, Sudan's army expelled the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces from Khartoum and its environs this spring. But much of the city still lies in ruins, including many of its heritage sites. Antiquities were damaged in the fighting, and still more were carted off by looters and smuggled into neighboring countries.

Preservationists who returned to the city after the army's advance are now sifting through the wreckage and trying to recover and restore what they can.