An ingredient in Coca-Cola may be funding Sudan's war

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Westerners’ consumption of a little-known tree gum – used in everything from Coca-Cola and Nestlé pet food to L’Oréal lipsticks and M&M sweets – could be funding both sides in Sudan’s bitter civil war.

Gum arabic, derived from the sap of acacia trees, is widely used as a stabiliser, thickener and binding agent. For global billion-dollar consumer companies, “uninterrupted access to this key ingredient is non-negotiable”, said financial news site Finshots.

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Ancient sap, distinct qualities

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‘Directly financing the fighting’

After 2009, “international pressures to liberalise the trade” from government control increased, said Finshots, and private entities “entered the picture”. Then civil war broke out in April 2023 between the government’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary rebel group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). And, last year, the RSF – who have been accused of ethnic cleansing and genocide – “gained extensive control of the trade” and the gum-harvesting regions.

Now, the sap has become “a key source of funding for both sides”, said The Wall Street Journal. “AK-47 toting” RSF fighters control the major agricultural routes, and collect money from traders, while the Sudanese military, which runs the de-facto government, “levies taxes and other tariffs”. Proceeds from exports are “directly financing this fighting”, said Sudanese academic Rabie Abdelaty.

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But it is also logistically difficult. The raw product is “making its way to Sudan’s neighbours without proper certification”, sources told Reuters. Recently, traders in countries with lower production, such as Chad and Senegal, or which “barely exported it before the war” – Egypt and South Sudan – have begun to “aggressively” offer it at cheap prices, “without proof it is conflict-free”.

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