How a key ingredient in Coca-Cola, M&M's is smuggled from war-torn Sudan, 4 March 2025

Gum arabic, a vital ingredient used in everything from Coca-Cola to M&M's sweets, is increasingly being trafficked from rebel-held areas of war-torn Sudan, traders and industry sources say, complicating Western companies' efforts to insulate their supply chains from the conflict...

…The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war since April 2023 with Sudan's national army, seized control late last year of the main gum-harvesting regions of Kordofan and Darfur in western Sudan… Since then the raw product, which can only be marketed by Sudanese traders in return for a fee to the RSF, is making its way to Sudan's neighbours without proper certification, according to conversations with eight producers and buyers who are directly involved in gum arabic trading or based in Sudan...
The buyer, a major trader in the West Kordofan area, said traders collect gum from Sudanese land owners and sell them to South Sudanese traders in these markets for U.S. dollars...All of this happens with RSF protection, which the traders pay for, the buyer added...
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