Urgent Memorandum: Economic Erosion and Systematic Targeting of Women in the Gum Arabic Sector – En-Nahud

To: International Human Rights Organizations, UN Agencies, and Entities Concerned with Women, Peace, and Security.
From: Khartoum Center for Community Peace and Media.
Subject: Documentation of Economic Violence and Gross Violations Against Women Workers in the Gum Arabic Sector – En-Nahud City and Surrounding Rural Areas.
Date: March 2026.
Administrative and Security Shift
En-Nahud city, North Kordofan, serves as the primary economic artery for Sudan’s gum arabic sector, hosting a strategic exchange that supplies the global market with the finest “Hashab” gum. This stability collapsed following the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia’s seizure of the city in May 2025, after fierce battles that resulted in at least 800 fatalities. Since then, the city and its outskirts have been transformed into an arena for systematic looting and targeted violence against civilians, leading to a catastrophic deterioration of humanitarian conditions and acute shortages of essential services.
Documentation of Field Violations Against Women (Compound Violence)
Rural women in the “Hashab Orchards” of En-Nahud face direct targeting by RSF militia elements. Women engaged in the “tapping” and harvesting processes have been subjected to physical assault and financial extortion, rendering access to production areas life-threatening. Furthermore, systematic arson has been documented targeting stored crops—including peanuts, hibiscus, and gum arabic—in villages such as Abu Mariqa following the militia’s incursion, destroying the livelihoods of hundreds of families dependent on this season. Additionally, over 1,000 tons of gum arabic were looted from local traders at gunpoint, forcing national purchasing power out of the market and replacing it with “war brokers.”
Economic Analysis and Sector Collapse
Military practices and organized looting have triggered an economic catastrophe that transcends local borders, impacting the national economy:

• Production Decline: Export volumes plummeted from 150,000 tons annually pre-war to a mere 48,000 tons in the 2023-2024 season—a 60% decline.
• Price Collapse: The price per ton dropped from $2,755 in 2022 to between $1,000 and $1,450, due to the control of militia-linked smugglers over export routes, depriving producers of fair returns.
• Productive Decay: The climate of terror and the migration of young labor toward gold mining have left the labor burden on women and children. This is compounded by an increase in illegal logging for fuel due to lack of alternatives, posing a severe environmental threat to the “Gum Arabic Belt.”
  Legal Standing and International Obligations
  The actions perpetrated by the RSF militia in En-Nahud constitute a flagrant violation of international conventions ratified by Sudan, including UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security, and the Maputo Protocol (2003) on the Rights of Women in Africa. Depriving women of the fruits of their labor and utilizing economic deprivation as a weapon of war is a “financial crime” that warrants international prosecution.
  Demands and Recommendations
  The Khartoum Center for Community Peace and Media demands an explicit international condemnation of the RSF militia for its destructive practices against the gum arabic sector and its direct targeting of rural women. We call for the inclusion of “natural resource looting” within international investigation files regarding war crimes in Sudan, as it constitutes illicit conflict financing through the starvation of civilians. Finally, we urge the provision of emergency support to women producers who have lost their livelihoods due to arson and looting in the villages of West Kordofan.
  Khartoum Center for Community Peace and Media
  March 2026