Overview
- The UN Human Rights Office published a report on Wednesday that documents how control of territory, trade routes and commodity sales — especially gum arabic and gold — are financing the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces.
- The report shows large-scale looting and redirected trade: stocks seized in places such as El-Nuhud in May 2025 were moved through cross-border routes to neighbouring states where products are relabelled and exported, making origin hard to verify.
- Gum arabic remains a vital livelihood for millions and was responsible for about 70–80% of global crude supplies before the war, while declared 2024 gold exports through Port Sudan were worth roughly $1.6 billion with substantial untracked smuggling noted in the report.
- Traders and smallholders have faced looting, extortion, arbitrary detention and checkpoints that impose informal taxes, and the UN warns that companies and transit states risk being implicated if they do not enforce stronger human-rights due diligence and supply-chain checks.
- The report urges coordinated action by states, corporations and transit countries to strengthen accountability, traceability and regulatory oversight, and warns that breaking these commodity flows could reduce funding for fighters and ease pressure on civilians.