A powerful militia and the country’s military both profit from trade in gum arabic, a common ingredient...Near the end of his 50-mile trip, Jaber says he pays around $330 to fighters from the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group that the U.S. government has accused of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in Sudan’s one-year-old civil war...In addition to the payments at the main RSF checkpoints, Jaber says gum arabic traders also hand over between $60 and $100 to AK-47-toting RSF fighters, who accompany the convoys of traders in pickup trucks...

“Our business came to a complete halt,” said Martijn Bergkamp, a partner at FOGA Gum. “We work on a completely transparent food chain. Due to the war, it is not clear where gum comes from in Sudan. We don’t want to cooperate with either party.”...Now the company only supports tree planting by some nurseries in the western Darfur region, he said...

The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre invited companies to comment. Nestlé commented, but Nexira, Ferrero, Morouj Commodities UK, and Hershey did not.