Full story
UN links war economy
The UN warned on Wednesday that Sudan’s war economy is helping sustain the three-year conflict between Sudanese military forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) through the trade of commodities including gum arabic.
“The EU has hit the African state with a new wave of sanctions aimed at crippling its gold-funded war atrocities”
The UN said the conflict has become “increasingly self-perpetuating” as parties rely on control of territory, trade routes, and commodities to generate revenue for military operations.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said, “Sudan’s vast wealth of natural resources should benefit its people. Distressingly, what we are seeing today is anything but that.”
The UN report examined gum arabic as a case study, saying Sudan accounted for roughly 70 to 80 per cent of global crude gum arabic exports before the war and that people linked to the trade have faced threats, arbitrary detention, looting, and extortion.
The UN said gum arabic value chains have been reshaped by territorial fragmentation, with supplies from areas controlled by the Sudanese Armed Forces moving toward Port Sudan while quantities from RSF-controlled areas were redirected through cross-border smuggling routes.
Sanctions target gold
The EU Council announced a new wave of sanctions on Tuesday (14 July) aimed at crippling Sudan’s gold-funded war economy by targeting the gold trade.
The EU said the ban is set to apply to the purchase, import or transfer of gold sourced from Sudan, and it also imposed an additional ban on the sale, supply, transfer or export of mercury and cyanide to Sudan.
In a statement seen by Radio Dabanga, the Council said the decision is intended to strengthen restrictive measures by introducing new sectoral measures targeting the war economy and reducing sources of funding for the conflict.
The EU Council said the restrictions on mercury and cyanide include exemptions for goods intended for humanitarian purposes, public health emergencies, or disaster response.
The EU’s sanctions build on an earlier framework adopted on 9 October 2023 after the conflict broke out on 15 April 2023, with the latest wave confirmed on Tuesday (14 July).
Human rights risks ahead
The UN warned that the gum arabic trade’s conflict-linked disruptions have weakened traceability of origins and formal export channels as commodities from conflict-affected areas may pass through transit countries where documentation and labelling can obscure sources.
The UN said people involved in the gum arabic trade faced threats to their safety, arbitrary detention, looting, and extortion by parties to the conflict and associated actors, including in West Kordofan where the Gum Arabic Exchange and warehouses were reportedly looted by the RSF in May 2025.
Türk urged states and companies involved in Sudanese commodities trade to strengthen oversight and ensure trade practices do not violate human rights or sustain the conflict, warning, “Companies cannot continue business as usual when sourcing from conflict-affected value chains.”
The UN also called for heightened, conflict-sensitive human rights due diligence, including stronger scrutiny of routes, intermediaries, documentation and possible re-labelling, and access to safe and effective grievance and response mechanisms.
As the EU tightens sanctions on Sudan’s gold sector, the UN’s warning frames the next phase as a contest over commodities and trade routes that help keep the war economy alive.
