OBEID — Since 2025, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have commandeered Sudan’s gum arabic trade in the Kordofan region, integrating the resin into smuggling networks and cutting off legal shipments to government-held areas. The RSF, which controls parts of western Sudan including Kordofan, imposes taxes on gum arabic transport that sometimes exceed $2,000 per truck and has looted warehouses storing the commodity.
Gum arabic, a resin harvested from acacia trees, is used as a stabilizer in food, medicine, and cosmetics. Sudan once supplied up to 80% of the global market, earning $183 million from the trade in 2022 and supporting roughly 5 million people, according to economic experts. Kordofan forms the core of Sudan’s gum arabic belt, but harvesters there now operate under severe constraints due to RSF presence.
Adam Ahmad, a 47-year-old farmer from near Al-Nahud, said that before the RSF overran his town in May 2025, he regularly delivered seven tons of gum arabic to Obeid’s market. He now manages only about half a ton. Ahmad described having to take a circuitous route to Obeid that took over a week and involved evading RSF patrols who might confiscate his cargo, demand exorbitant fees, or kill him. Harvesters like Ahmad now risk tapping only one or two acacia orchards at a time, down from four, due to fear of RSF harassment.
Ahmad Mastour, a gum trader with Afritec, said that the current volume of gum arabic in Obeid’s market is less than 10% of pre-war levels. RSF militiamen looted Afritec’s warehouses in Al-Nahud, stealing 3,000 tons of gum arabic along with trucks, tractors, and generators. More than $125 million worth of gum arabic was estimated to have been looted from manufacturers in the town. Mastour said that Afritec had to completely stop production in 2026 due to the conflict.
A 2025 U.N. Panel of Experts report stated that RSF commanders condoned the looting of gum arabic as compensation for fighters. The group smuggles the resin through border points it controls into Libya, Chad, the Central African Republic, and South Sudan. In those countries, smuggled Sudanese gum arabic is mixed with local supplies to bypass international policies restricting sourcing from conflict zones. Observers estimate the RSF and its associated entities earn between $1 billion and $2 billion annually from commodities including gold and gum arabic, with revenues used to pay fighters and acquire high-tech drones.