Rapid Report: Damage to the Palace of Sultan Ali Dinar Museum in Al Fashir, Sudan

Since the onset of civil war in Sudan on 15 April 2023, cultural heritage sites, including museums, have sustained damage. The Palace of Sultan Ali Dinar Museum in Al Fashir, Sudan, was initially damaged no later than 03 September 2024 and has suffered a series of damage events since. Analysis conducted by the Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab at the Virginia Museum of Natural History (CHML), in collaboration with the Museum Conservation Institute—Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative (MCI-SCRI) and the Penn Cultural Heritage Center at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (PennCHC), confirmed this damage and established its chronology. This review was undertaken after reports of damage to the museum appeared in news outlets on 10 January 2025. Building on existing reports, the following analysis of commercially available satellite imagery adds chronological detail to a multi-year series of impacts to the Sultan Ali Dinar Museum.Please Download PDF for Full Report and ImagesCITE THIS REPORT: Fitzgerald, K., Hanson, K., Bassett, H., Gunter-Bassett, M., Welsh, W., Maher, A., Averyt, K., Kane, K. E., Muller, C. E., and Daniels, B. I. (2026). “Damage to the Palace of Sultan Ali Dinar Museum in Al Fashir, Sudan.” Virginia Museum of Natural History, Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab; University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Penn Cultural Heritage Center; and Smithsonian Institution, Museum Conservation Institute—Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25573/data.30625025.