US, Nigeria Sign Agreement On Cultural Heritage Preservation

• The US and Nigeria signed an agreement to preserve Sukur’s cultural heritage in Adamawa state, focusing on infrastructure enhancements
• The grant aims to document, conserve, and improve the Sukur UNESCO World Heritage Site through various preservation efforts

The United States of America has signed an agreement with the Nigerian government to preserve Sukur’s cultural heritage in Adamawa state.

Speaking at the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signing event in Abuja on Thursday, the Chargé d’Affaires of the US Embassy in Nigeria, David Greene, announced that the grant had been awarded to the International Council on Monuments and Sites in Nigeria, ICOMOS-Nigeria.

According to Greene, the grant is intended to document, conserve, and improve the cultural heritage of the Sukur UNESCO World Heritage Site in Adamawa State.

He said the “latest grant will support ICOMOS-Nigeria and its local partners to help preserve Sukur cultural heritage through infrastructure enhancements, the revival of threatened traditional crafts, and documentation and preservation of the Sakun language.”

Speaking at the event, Nigeria’s Minister of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy Hannatu Musawa, said the Sukur Cultural Landscape is under imminent threat of insurgency and immediate danger imposed by global climate change.

She said: “The project aims at undertaking a 2-year conservation and preservation work in the Sukur Cultural Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is regarded as a place of Outstanding Universal Values.

“The work also involves the conservation of the tangible and intangible heritage of Sukur Cultural Landscape, enhancing community capacity, strengthening local, national and international links and networks for conserving the site’s Outstanding Universal Values and buttressing the resilience of the Sukur community in the face of insurgency and climate change.”