Wartime gold trade flows through UAE

SUDAN’S gold industry has become the lifeblood of its war, with nearly all of the trade channelled through the United Arab Emirates (UAE), enriching official and NGO sources.

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The two conflicts have decimated Sudan’s economy. Last month, the army-backed government announced record gold production for last year.

Demand for the country’s vast gold reserves was a key factor in prolonging the war, Sudanese economist Abdaizim Ali Abdaizim said.

To solve the war in Sudan, we have to follow the gold, and we arrive at the UAE, said Mark Umbreit, a researcher with the development organisation Swissaid who tracks African gold smuggling to the civil country.

In a letter to AFP, the UAE official rejected any baseless and unfounded allegation regarding the smuggling or profiting of gold, and that according to Sudanese officials, industry sources and Swissaid’s research, nearly all of Sudan’s gold now flows to the UAE as official trade routes, smuggling and direct Emirati ownership of the government’s currently lucrative mines.

Last month, the state owned Sudan Mineral Resources Company said gold production reached 64 tons in 2024, up from 41.8 tons in 2022. Legal exports brought $1.57 billion into the state’s depleted coffers, central bank figures show, but nearly half of the state’s production is smuggled across borders, SMRC director Mohameden Tahir said from Sudan’s roughly 2,000km away, on Sudan’s borders with South Sudan and the Central African Republic. He said mines controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Much of the gold produced by both sides is smuggled to Chad with Sudan, and Egypt, before reaching the UAE, according to mining industry sources and experts.