Why An African Nation Is Sending Samples To “Doomsday” Vault In The Arctic

Sudan, a country bordering Egypt in northeast Africa has decided to send crop samples to the “doomsday” vault in a remote Norwegian island in the Arctic. These genetic samples are of food crops seeds. But why is Sudan doing this?

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, often referred to as the “doomsday” vault is located deep inside a mountain where man-made caves are carved out. Here, food crop seeds from around the planet are stored and their genetic codes preserved for a potential apocalypse.

This vault is designed to withstand a wide range of disasters, both natural and man-made – from floods, blizzards, and volcanoes to global warming, war, and nuclear disasters. It was launched in the year 2008 and has served as the planet’s gene bank since. This includes the genetic codes of thousands of crops and plant species too.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, known as the “doomsday” vault is located in the remote Arctic region.

THE GRAVE SITUATION IN SUDAN

While an apocalyptic event has fortunately not occurred yet, the world has seen constant conflict or war in one part or another – in Sudan too.

Unlike the war in Gaza or the one in Ukraine, the civil war in Sudan has not been as prominently spoken about, but the country is in a grave situation. The unrest had broken out in April 2023, when the Sudanese Army and the country’s Rapid Support Forces – a paramilitary faction clashed against each other.

So far, tens of thousands of lives have been lost in the war in Sudan. According to a report by the BBC, it is estimated that by May 2024, the death count in Sudan’s latest civil war had crossed 150,000 – even more than that of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza combined.

In Sudan’s capital Khartoum alone, it is estimated that more than 61,000 people have died till October 2024. Hundreds of thousands have been injured and more than 12 million people have been displaced and left homeless.

More than half of Sudan’s population – roughly 50 million – have plunged into hunger and severe malnutrition. Several locations across the war-ravaged nation is dealing with famine.

Not just people, but plants and animals are bearing the brunt too, and preserving the genetic codes of crops local to the region have become a necessity. “In Sudan…these seeds represent hope,” the director of Sudan’s Agricultural Plant Genetic Resources Conservation and Research Centre said in a statement.

Sudan is depositing samples of 15 species of crops, consisting of several varieties of sorghum – a plant that is significant both for the country’s food security and its cultural heritage.

Besides Sudan, crop samples from several other nations are also being deposited for the purpose of preservation. These include seeds of Nordic tree species from Sweden and rice from Thailand.

In total, 14,022 new samples have been deposited.

Protected by permafrost, the “doomsday” vault has received samples from across the world since its inception. It has played a leading role between 2015 and 2019 in rebuilding seed collections damaged during the war in Syria. “The seeds deposited this week represent not just biodiversity, but also the knowledge, culture and resilience of the communities that steward them,” Executive Director Stefan Schmitz of the Crop Trust said in a statement.

(Inputs from Reuters)