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

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.

About 80% of the world's gum arabic is harvested in Sudan, where the acacia trees stretch from border to border. But the sap is "increasingly being trafficked from rebel-held areas" of the war-torn nation, industry sources told Reuters. This is "complicating Western companies' efforts" to disengage their supply chains from the devastating conflict.

Ancient sap, distinct qualities

Humans have been making use of gum arabic for millennia, wrote biotechnology professor Asgar Ali in The Conversation. The earliest recorded use dates back to 2000BC, when ancient Egyptians "employed it in foodstuffs, hieroglyphic paints and mummification ointments".

The gum's "distinct qualities and water solubility" mean it's used today across a range of sectors, including medicines, cosmetics, textiles, and food and drink. And Sudan, with its "vast acacia forests" and "liberalised" market, is a "significant producer" and "key player in the processing and export".

But, for decades, Sudan's gum arabic industry has "faced political instability, civil conflicts and economic challenges". Since the start of the current war, exports have been "severely affected". If the fighting continues, stockpiles could run out.

'Directly financing the fighting'

When the US sanctioned Sudan in the 1990s for its then leader Omar al-Bashir's alleged support for terrorism, president Bill Clinton created a special exemption, known as E414, for trade in gum arabic.

A decade later, when Sudan increasingly "faced Western pressure and sanctions over the bloody conflict in Darfur", gum arabic was used as "leverage", said Al Jazeera. Sudan's ambassador to the US "famously held up a Coca-Cola bottle at a news conference and declared: 'I can stop that gum arabic, and all of us will have lost this'".

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.

But few Western companies are taking active steps to avoid Sudanese gum arabic, said the paper. Some have argued that doing so would "hurt hundreds of thousands of Sudanese who depend on the sap for their livelihoods", against the backdrop of growing famine.

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".

"Today, the gum in Sudan, I would say all of it is smuggled," said Herve Canevet, global marketing specialist at food-ingredients supplier Eco-Agri, "because there's no real authority in the country."

Both Nestlé and Coca-Cola declined to comment to Reuters, while L'Oréal and M&Ms maker Mars "did not return requests for comment".