From Commodities to Conflict: Fueling Sudan’s War Economy

Oct 9, 2026 | Alessandra Bajec
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This paper examines Sudan’s war as a self-sustaining political economy embedded in regional and global supply chains. It argues that the conflict persists as armed actors continue to finance and sustain their operations through the trade of high-value natural resources in exchange for weapons, funding, and external backing.

It analyzes how commodities are traded through regional and Gulf-linked commercial networks, creating a financing cycle that fuels and prolongs the conflict. As such, resource extraction, cross-border trafficking, and logistical support have become core pillars of the political economy sustaining the conflict.

The paper concludes that any durable resolution depends on addressing Sudan’s resource-based political economy, namely by disrupting the trade, trafficking, and market networks that fuel the war.