Sovereignty without Control: Sudan, Gold and the Limits of International Law

Jun 19, 2026 | Maria Pietroluongo
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Sudan’s contemporary gold economy has become one of the most significant sites of violence, coercion, and resource extraction in the region. Since the early 2010s, gold has financed armed actors, shaped patterns of labour exploitation, and linked local mining communities to transnational markets stretching across the Gulf and beyond. Far from representing a breakdown of order, this is how the system works.