“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.

Before the Sudanese civil war, the raw gum would be sorted in Khartoum and then trucked to Port Sudan, on the Red Sea, to be shipped via the Suez Canal around the world.

Since late last year, however, RSF-affiliated gum Arabic started to appear on sale at two informal markets on the border between the Sudanese province of West Kordofan and South Sudan, according to a buyer based in an RSF-controlled area, who declined to be named due to safety concerns.

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.

…Abdallah Mohamed, a producer who owns acacia groves in West Kordofan, also told Reuters the RSF takes a fee from the traders for protection. The paramilitary group has diversified its interests into gold, livestock, agriculture and banking.

South Sudan Information Minister Michael Makuei, who is also the government's spokesperson, told Reuters transport of gum through South Sudan was not the government's responsibility. Calls and messages to Joseph Moum Majak, the minister of trade and industry for South Sudan, went unanswered.

... Alland & Robert, Nestle and Coca Cola commented. M&Ms, Mars and L'Oreal did not comment.