The smuggled resource in your candy and soda funding Sudan's civil war

Sudan has historically been the top producer of gum arabic, a pink resin that ends up in lots of products like Coca-Cola, M&M's, makeup, and pills.

But Sudan has been in the grips of civil war since 2023, which has displaced an estimated 14 million people. The war has devastated the lives of gum arabic farmers. Gum trees have been cleared, and exports to the US have dropped.

With Western companies now looking to Sudan's neighbors to source it, experts say smuggled gum arabic is funding the civil war and likely the purchase of weapons by paramilitary groups.