A new United Nations human rights report has raised alarm over the role of Sudan’s globally significant gum arabic trade in sustaining the country’s prolonged conflict, warning that one of the world’s most widely used natural commodities has become increasingly intertwined with a war economy marked by human rights abuses, illicit trade and armed group financing.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the trade in gum arabic, a natural resin derived from acacia trees and used in thousands of products ranging from soft drinks and confectionery to pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and food processing, has evolved since Sudan’s civil war.
Rather than providing economic opportunities for rural people, the commodity has evolved into a cash lifeline for armed actors, exposing farmers, dealers, and local communities to violence, extortion, and exploitation.
Sudan has historically dominated the global gum arabic market, supplying between 70 and 80 per cent of the world’s crude exports before the outbreak of war. For generations, millions of Sudanese depended on the sector for their livelihoods, while export revenues from the commodity played an important role in the country’s economy.
Today, however, that once-thriving industry has been transformed by conflict.
According to the UN report, both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have become increasingly dependent on domestic sources of revenue as the cost of sustaining military operations has escalated.
Alongside gold, livestock and other agricultural commodities, gum arabic has become deeply embedded in Sudan’s war economy through its production, transportation and export, as well as through taxes, checkpoints and informal payments imposed along trade routes controlled by rival armed groups.
Many of Sudan’s gum arabic-producing regions are now located in conflict-affected areas where serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law have been documented.
The report alleges that the RSF has profited through the sale of looted gum arabic, taxes imposed on traders and control of important cross-border transport routes. At the same time, traders moving through territories held by the Sudanese Armed Forces reportedly encounter multiple checkpoints where both formal and informal fees increase transport costs and disrupt commercial activity.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk stated that, “Sudan’s vast wealth of natural resources should benefit its people.”
“Distressingly, what we are seeing today is anything but that. In fact, this wealth is only serving to undermine human rights and drive conflict, bringing pain and suffering on an enormous scale.”
Volker Türk
The humanitarian fallout has been disastrous. Millions of people are struggling to survive as a result of the conflict, which has displaced nearly 15 million people and severely disrupted or destroyed healthcare, education, water supplies, and other vital services.
Sudan is currently experiencing one of the biggest displacement and protection crises in the world, with civilians continuing to bear the brunt of the violence, as humanitarian organisations have repeatedly warned.
In light of this, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights contends that gum arabic’s economic value has become inextricably linked to the conflict’s larger political economy, posing new difficulties for both Sudan and foreign businesses that depend significantly on the product.
UN Calls for Stronger Oversight of Conflict-Linked Supply Chains
Moreover, the UN report warns that businesses sourcing gum arabic from Sudan or neighbouring countries face increasing human rights risks unless they strengthen oversight of their supply chains and ensure their commercial activities are not contributing to the conflict.
Although official exports from Sudan have declined since the outbreak of war, shipments from neighbouring countries have increased significantly. According to the report, this trend raises concerns that Sudanese gum arabic may be leaving the country through illicit channels before entering international markets under different declarations of origin.
The report notes that neighbouring and transit countries have a critical role to play in disrupting these illicit trade networks by strengthening customs controls, tackling document fraud and preventing false claims of origin that could allow conflict-linked commodities to enter legitimate global markets.
At the same time, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is pushing governments where multinational corporations are headquartered to exercise greater oversight over businesses that source items from conflict-affected areas.
The report, based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, urges on businesses to improve their human rights due diligence by identifying, preventing, reducing, and addressing negative impacts associated with their activities and commercial partnerships.
The findings suggest that responsibility for addressing the crisis extends beyond Sudan’s borders, requiring coordinated action from governments, regulators, businesses and international organisations to reduce the financial incentives that continue to fuel the conflict.
Farmers and traders remain among the most vulnerable groups affected by the deteriorating security situation. Many producers face restrictions on movement, limited market access, insecurity during harvesting seasons and declining incomes as transport routes become increasingly dangerous and expensive.
The UN report also points to longstanding structural weaknesses in Sudan’s economic governance, arguing that years of corruption, limited market oversight and the influence of security actors over commercial activity created vulnerabilities that have been dramatically worsened by the war.
Volker Türk stressed that disrupting the financial mechanisms sustaining the conflict should become an international priority.
“This war economy must be disrupted, and the international community must pay much closer attention to the commodities and trade routes that help keep it alive.”
Volker Türk
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