In the conflict-ridden East African country of Sudan, the 2,000-year-old Meroe pyramids, under UNESCO protection, continue to stand tall in the desert, surviving war and neglect while shedding a light on history.

The determination came as the United States announced sanctions against the Sudanese military chief, saying there was strong evidence of atrocities in the country.

The Girl from Sudan is a conviction a young artist called Joshua Alba has had since last year. It all started one night when Alba came across this girl from Sudan while walking back to his home with a friend.

The worse Sudan’s self-appointed leaders behave, however, the more nobly its people respond. In West Kordofan state, on the country’s southern border, Salah Almogadm had been working at the Ministry of Agriculture. His job disappeared with the war.

The US government has imposed sanctions on the head of Sudan's army and de facto president, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. He has been leading one of the two sides in the 21-month civil war that has killed tens of thousands, uprooted over 12 million and pushed the country to the brink of famine.

As the war increasingly threatens to split Sudan into rival mini-states, it not only offers an insight into the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the country, but also a glimpse of its possible future.

Amid what a Catholic charity called "unimaginable" suffering of civilians trapped in civil war brutality in Sudan, the United States declared that one of the fighting factions is committing genocide in the country and slapped sanctions on its leader.

The Biden administration takes action against Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, accusing Sudan’s leaders of “blatant disregard of civilian lives” amid the civil war.

On September 9, 2004, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to deliver much-anticipated testimony on the crisis in Sudan’s western region of Darfur. Eighteen minutes into his remarks, he became the first executive branch official in U.S. history to declare an ongoing conflict a “genocide.”

The UN has warned of escalating ethnic violence in Sudan, citing rising civilian deaths and a deepening power struggle.

The U.S. has imposed sanctions on the leader of Sudan’s military in a devastating war that is spreading famine in that country.