The UN stated on Wednesday that Sudan’s war economy is contributing to sustaining the ongoing armed conflict between Sudanese military forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), through the trade of various Sudanese commodities, including gum arabic, one of the country’s main exports.
In addition to external military support and weapons supply, the conflict in Sudan has been sustained by revenues generated from the commodities trade. The UN noted that as the costs of maintaining military operations have increased, parties to the conflict have relied on the control of territory, trade routes, and commodities to generate revenue, resulting in a “self-perpetuating” conflict. These revenues are linked to the trade of gold, livestock, and agricultural products, generated through their extraction, export, and payments imposed along trade routes.
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, highlighted that Sudan’s wealth of natural resources is far from benefiting the country’s people, and that it is instead undermining human rights and driving conflict.
Relatedly, the UN conducted a report focusing on the trade of gum arabic in Sudan, an ingredient used in various cosmetic and pharmaceutical products, and its global value chain to demonstrate how this trade violates international human rights and fuels the armed conflict.
The report found that millions of Sudanese citizens who earn their living through gum arabic trade have experienced multiple human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, looting, and extortion perpetrated by warring parties and associated actors. These abuses are the result of large-scale looting and conflict-related disruptions of the gum arabic value chain by armed groups seeking to control the trade and benefit from its revenues, which have severely affected the livelihoods of civilians already facing dire humanitarian conditions.
The report further noted that the armed conflict has reshaped the trade of gum arabic in Sudan by fragmenting export routes, imposing informal taxation, and smuggling through cross-border routes to neighbouring countries. All these practices have weakened the traceability of the commodity’s origin and formal export channels.
Therefore, the UN emphasized that the proliferation of irregular gum arabic and other commodities trades amid escalating conflict is the shared responsibility of Sudanese authorities, neighboring countries, states linked to downstream sourcing and processing, and companies involved in the commodity’s value chain.
On this issue, Türk urged both states and global companies engaged in Sudanese commodities trade to abide by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and to take the necessary measures to ensure that trade and export practices do not violate human rights or sustain the conflict. These measures must include enhanced human rights due diligence as well as a stronger scrutiny of trade routes and intermediaries.
After three years of persistent conflict in Sudan, the country’s population is experiencing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, characterised by widespread malnutrition, mass displacement, war crimes against civilians, and the collapse of healthcare infrastructure. The UN has previously warned that the escalating armed conflict is further worsening living conditions in the country, amid persistent arms flows and shrinking humanitarian funding.
