Conflict in Sudan, GCC's food basket, rattles Gulf investments

Salim A. Essaid

Apr 27, 2023

This picture taken on March 28, 2023 shows a vendor selling dates in the area of Multaqa in Sudan's Northern State, during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan. - Muslims follow the tradition set by the prophet Mohammed whom believers say used to break his fast by eating dates and drinking goat's milk during the fasting month. The dawn-to-dusk fast is conceived as a spiritual struggle against the seduction of earthly pleasures, but the evening iftar festive meals traditionally bring families together du — This picture taken on March 28, 2023, shows a vendor selling dates in the area of Multaqa in Sudan's Northern State, during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan. — ASHRAF SHAZLY/AFP via Getty Images

DUBAI — Since the 1970s, Arab Gulf countries have pledged billions of dollars in aid and investment to Sudan in sectors including agriculture, energy and infrastructure, yet many of these projects fail due to the country's political uprisings and warring factions.

This time is no different as Khartoum descends into a conflict between head of the Sudanese military Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Rapid Security Forces commander Gen. Mohamed Hamdan "Hemedti" Dagalo that has killed over 400 people in less than two weeks.

Sudan is fertile in ways that its Gulf neighbors are not, with more substantial water resources, minerals and agriculture.

Despite the country’s ongoing instability, Sudan’s strategic location is a source of natural wealth providing petroleum and natural gas reserves and mineral deposits such as gold and manganese, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Sudan exported 16.7 tons of gold worth about $1 billion in the first half of 2021, according to central bank data, with almost all of it going to the United Arab Emirates.