Convoys guarded by armed fighters leave the gold fields of Darfur and head for the borders. Some take the route from Um Dafuq to Birao in northern Central African Republic. Others follow desert tracks into Chad.
The Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group at war with Sudan’s army, control large parts of Darfur, including mining areas that have been turned into closed zones. African Insight described the Jebel Amer mine in North Darfur as the region’s best-known artisanal site. Radom and Songo in South Darfur produce heavily and sit on the road toward the Central African Republic border. Kutum and Kabkabiya in North Darfur serve as collection points for alluvial gold.
A war paid for in bullion
The war began in April 2023 between the army under General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF under Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, known as Hemedti. Le Monde diplomatique reported that it has killed more than 30,000 people and displaced 11 million. The UN says 25 million people, half the population, urgently need food aid.
Both sides sell gold to pay for the fighting, the magazine said. It reported that the United Arab Emirates backs Hemedti, paying $500,000 a month toward RSF wages and supplying ammunition and combat drones. Sudan is Africa’s third-largest gold producer, and the magazine called control of that trade the top priority for the UAE and Russia.
Russia’s role is murkier. Le Monde diplomatique said Moscow long supported Hemedti, including by supplying mercenaries through the former Wagner Group, now rebranded as Africa Corps, but is now hedging its bets. African Insight reported links between the RSF and Wagner built around guarding extraction sites and running closed processing plants that use cyanide and mercury. In return the RSF got logistics, technical help and arms. Remote airstrips in Darfur and Wagner-linked positions around Birao have been used to move supplies and consignments.
What investigators found
In late 2023 the UN Panel of Experts on Sudan reported that the UAE was helping the RSF receive gold that sanctioned companies were smuggling out of Sudan. A May 2024 report by the NGO SWISSAID named the UAE as the main destination for smuggled African gold. Its authors, Marc Ummel and Yvan Schulz, estimated that the UAE imported more than 2,500 tonnes of it in the decade to 2022, worth about $115 billion.
Regulators were slow to respond. Emirates Gold DMCC, one of the UAE’s largest refineries, was suspended from trading on the Dubai and London gold markets in July 2023. In February 2024 the Financial Action Task Force took the UAE off its grey list.
US authorities are now watching Russian gold trading move to Hong Kong, a shift under way since April 2024.
