Since the start of the violent conflict in April 2023, the exploitation of the mining industry has been used as a core economic and military strategy to bypass international banking sanctions, finance war efforts, and procure arms. Trade exploitation in natural commodities such as gum arabic and gold has significantly contributed to sustaining the conflict and increased human rights violation.
The war economy and its impact on civilians
On Sept. 3rd the UN Independent International Fact-finding Mission to Sudan presented a chilling report on the war economy and its effect on harming civilians.
Sudan’s war economy is “helping to sustain the three-year-long conflict, exposing global supply chains to serious human rights risks. Warring parties have relied on the control and exploitation of territory, trade routes and commodities to generate revenue — contributing to an ‘increasingly self-perpetuating’ conflict,” a UN human rights spokesperson said.
A UN Human Rights report specifically examines the trade in gum arabic – a key ingredient in products such as soft drinks, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals – as a case study on the adverse human rights impacts of Sudan’s war economy.
Ravina Shamdasani, UN Human Rights Office spokesperson reported, “Gum arabic remains one of Sudan’s most internationally relied-upon exports, and an important source of income for millions of Sudanese.” She continued, “but many Sudanese who depend on, or are linked to, the gum arabic trade have faced threats to their physical safety, arbitrary detention, looting and extortion, including through actions by parties to the conflict and associated actors.”
Since the conflict began in 2023, Sudan’s gum arabic trade has been increasingly reshaped by territorial fragmentation, with some quantities from areas controlled by the Sudanese Armed Forces moving toward Port Sudan for export, while significant quantities from areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces have been redirected through cross-border smuggling routes to neighbouring countries, according to OHCHR.
“Sudan contribute over 80% of the world total production and export of the gum arabic, most of which come from Darfur and Kordofan, where the conflict and genocide has devasted the lives and livelihood of mission, this precious natural resource should be used to save lives not to kill more people”said, Ms. Ahmadi, DWAG president
The OHCHR report also points to the role of neighboring and transit States in the onward movement of Sudanese gum Arabic, which may enter customs or commercial export channels and, in some cases, be treated, documented or traded as locally produced, making its origin difficult to verify, Shamdasani said.
“Sudan’s vast wealth of natural resources should benefit its people. Distressingly, what we are seeing today is anything but that.”
The UN-HR Spokesperson said, “this wealth is only serving to undermine human rights and drive conflict, bringing pain and suffering on an enormous scale.”
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called member states to action: 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,” Türk continued, adding that “international human rights and humanitarian law, as well as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, provide a framework for action.”
He said, “States and companies linked to trade in Sudanese commodities, including gum arabic, must take stronger action to ensure that trade and export practices do not contribute to adverse human rights impacts or to sustaining the conflict.”
Sudan’s Bloody Gold
The October 2026 report by the Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker (STPT) notes that both factions had laid the groundwork for state capture and gold sector control prior to the conflict (dating back to the Bashir era). However, since the outbreak of fighting, gold mining transitioned from a general source of patronage into a tactical instrument of war, designed to maintain weapons supply lines and evade global pressures.
Soon after the start of the war, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) took control of artisanal gold mines in the southwest and north of the country, respectively, while benefitting from gold by selling it to and through Egypt. The RSF is benefitting from the largest amount of gold – such as mines in Darfur and Kordofan – by selling it or smuggling it through channels via South Sudan and Kenya to the United Arab Emirates,
Sudan is a leading exporter of gold on the African continent and a leading exporter of the gum arabic. Both gold and gum arabic are exported through transit countries like South Sudan and Kenya, with Egypt and UAE as primary receiving countries, with no recourse of traceability. Since the start of the fighting, Sudan’s officially declared gold production has almost doubled, according to the Yale School of the Environment. According to the New York Times, $860 million worth of gold was extracted from RSF-controlled mines in Darfur in 2024. These numbers are higher when including illegal smuggling. At the beginning of October 2026, the Sudanese Mineral Resources Company (SMRC) reported $2.292 billion in gold export earnings from January to September, 105% of its annual target.
Hundreds Killed in Unsafe Gold Mine Collapses in Sudan- (West Kordofan and Northern Sudan)
Gold mining is extremely dangerous for miners with little to no safety precautions; as the industry has been put under more pressure as a financial income source for the warring parties, more mine collapses have caused unnecessary loss of life.
On Tuesday, 15 September 2026, adjoining mine shafts at the al-Zaraa mine – near the town of al-Nuhud in Sudan’s West Kordofan state – collapsed. Early reports by the Kordofan Observatory monitoring group stated that dozens of artisanal miners were killed, and numerous others were trapped in the rubble of the mines.
According to the Kordofan Observatory, residents used basic tools to attempt to pull trapped miners from the rubble. A source reported to AFP News Agency that at least eighty-two people were killed and another fifty were wounded in the West Kordofan mine collapse.
A miner who spoke to AFP discussed the lack of safety precautions present at the mine, stating that “the shafts were packed so closely that each one pulled down those beside it when it collapsed.” Additionally, a source reported to Reuters that a lack of safety procedures and rescue equipment led to the high death toll. Sudan Doctors Network, a medical group based out of Khartoum, also addressed the lack of basic safeguards for workers at the mine, citing the “negligence” that put the lives of the miners at serious risk.
On Sunday, 20 September 2026, an additional gold mine collapsed at the Awny mining area, located in northern Sudan. Miners reported to AFP that ten miners were killed in the collapse, with another twenty-one injured. There are believed to be more miners trapped in the rubble, but it is unclear just how many.
On Saturday, 10 October 2026, air strikes on a disputed area of land between Sudan and Egypt led to the deaths of over seventy miners. The Emergency Lawyers reported that this attack targeted gold miners south of the Halayeb triangle and accused Egyptian forces of launching the attack. As of 12 October 2026, seventy-two miners were confirmed to have been killed; however, this toll is expected to rise due to the remote location of the mine.
Recent International Efforts to Hold Exploiters Accountable
The EU recognized the major use of gold by armed groups and issued sanctions against all gold sourced in Sudan in July 2026. The EU placed a ban on the purchase, import, or transfer of gold originating in Sudan. An additional ban was placed on the sale, supply, transfer, or export of mercury and cyanide to Sudan, which are widely used for gold mining and exploitation.
During Darfur Women Action Group’s UNGA 81 side event, “Sudan’s Escalating Crisis: Civilian Protection and Atrocity Prevention” panelist and NYU Adjunct Professor of International Law, Dr. David Donat Cattin discussed the EU’s recent sanctions.
Dr. Donat Cattin depicted his gratitude that something has been done, but expressed that there still needs to be a real measure of accountability by the international community regarding the normalization of war and trade of goods produced from human rights abuses.
“We need to use what we have, international law. We don’t have a world government and a world army to stop those warmongers and authors of atrocity.” – Dr. David Donat Cattin,
Read our full blog on our UNGA 81 side event here.
At Darfur Women Action Group, we call on the international community to take the following steps to end the exploitation of Sudan’s gold industry, prevent its enrichment of warmongers, and cut off its financing of atrocities:
- Ensure full implementation and enforcement of the EU’s gold and mining-chemical sanctions. Strengthen enforcement through customs controls, financial investigations, and due-diligence requirements for refiners, traders, and transit countries, including South Sudan, Kenya, and Egypt.
- Use diplomatic pressure on key regional logistics and financial hubs. In particular, press Egypt and the United Arab Emirates to prevent the purchase or trade of Sudanese gold sourced from Sudan’s warring parties.
- Adopt comparable sanctions in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. These governments should prohibit the purchase and import of gold originating in Sudan to curb conflict financing and increase pressure on the actors fueling the war.
- Develop a system of traceability for gold produced in Sudan from its origin to market, ensuring that gold produced in Sudan does not exploit miners or is used as a financing mechanism of arms purchases by the RSF and SAF.
- Use universal jurisdictions to investigate and hold international gold companies accountable for enabling atrocities in Sudan
- Promote safe mining practices in Sudan. Protect artisanal miners from mine collapses and other safety risks through basic safety standards, emergency-response capacity, and independent monitoring.
Sanctions represent an important tool for financial accountability for atrocities crimes, however Sanctions cannot succeed in isolation. They must be calibrated and integrated as one lever within a cohesive, multi-track diplomatic strategy aimed at ending the war not applied as standalone or symbolic measures. All diplomatic and security responses must prioritize the protection of civilians, especially women, children, displaced people, and local communities. It must also include Sudanese civil society, women’s organizations, frontlines humanitarian workers and survivors in decision-making and guarantee unimpeded humanitarian access.
We call on and encourage all DWAG supporters to speak out and use your platform to condemn the horrific acts of violence against civilians in Sudan. Sudan’s gold and gum arabic must not finance atrocities. The international community should cut the financial arteries of the RSF and SAF war economies while protecting the civilians trapped within them. Through collective voice and action, we can end the suffering, stop the genocide, and bring those responsible to justice.
This post was written by: Sarah Roudabush, Communications Intern and Niemat Ahmadi, President
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