Conflict casts ominous shadow over global supplies of Sudan’s flagship export: gum Arabic

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A Sudanese man shows freshly-harvested gum arabic resin on the tip of a "sunki", a long wooden stick with a sharp metal edge, in the state-owned Demokaya research forest in North Kordofan, on January 9, 2023. (AFP)
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Sudanese men harvest gum arabic sap from an acacia tree in the state-owned Demokaya research forest of North Kordofan, Sudan, on January 9, 2023. (AFP)
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A Sudanese man shows gum arabic sap on the branch of an acacia tree. (AFP)
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Gum arabic acacia trees are not only tapped to produce valuable sap, but also help farmers relying on increasingly erratic rainfall by boosting moisture for their crops, making the difference between a healthy harvest or failure. (AFP)
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Gum arabic resin forms on an acacia tree branch. (AFP)
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Updated 29 May 2023

Conflict casts ominous shadow over global supplies of Sudan’s flagship export: gum Arabic

  • Soft-drink giants Coca-Cola and Pepsi warned stockpiles could run out in six months if Sudan fighting continues
  • Once flourishing industry has become a casualty of unrest, leaving producers and local market in dire straits

JUBA, South Sudan: The conflict in Sudan has claimed the lives, limbs and homes of growing numbers of people since it began on April 15. While the world hopes for a peaceful end to the bloodshed, many leaders of Sudanese industries warn that the economic toll of the violence could have a devastating impact on Sudan and internationally.

The once flourishing gum arabic industry in Sudan has become a casualty of the conflict, leaving producers and the local market in dire straits. Now, those who supply soft drink giants such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi have warned that their stockpiles could run out in three to six months if the fighting continues at its current pace.




Men idle their time away outside a destroyed bank branch in Khartoum, casualty to the ongoing war between rival military factions in Sudan. (AFP)

Gum arabic has dozens of uses. It serves multiple purposes in soft drinks, acting as a stabilizer to prevent flavors, coloring agents and essential oils from separating, and delivering a uniform blend of taste and aroma with every sip.

It also enhances texture and acts as a foam stabilizer, preventing excessive foaming while preventing the drink from going flat. Icings, soft candy, chewing gum and other sweets also use it as an ingredient.

Beyond its applications in food and beverages, gum arabic is used in watercolor paints, ceramic glaze, printmaking, pyrotechnics, glues, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, wine, shoe polish and lickable adhesives for postage stamps and envelopes.

 

In English-speaking countries, gum arabic is often referred to as gum acacia, reflecting its extraction from acacia trees that thrive in countries like Sudan, Chad, Nigeria, Senegal and Mali. Additionally, Kordofan gum is a variety of gum arabic produced in the Kordofan region of Sudan.

Exports from Darfur and Kordofan via Khartoum, especially of gum arabic, have been severely impacted since the start of the conflict. An estimated 5 million Sudanese — about 11 percent of the country’s population — rely directly or indirectly on income generated from the production of this valuable resource.

Hisham El-Kurdi, who previously implemented a gum harvesting project for smallholders, told Arab News that transportation routes had been disrupted and the capital, which serves as a hub, was embroiled in conflict, posing safety concerns for those trying to move the product.

“The majority of people in rural areas traditionally sell their products to the capital city of Sudan, Khartoum, where traders and businessmen handle the exports to various parts of the world. In the current situation, this process faces significant challenges,” he said.

FASTFACTS

A natural gum, gum arabic is the exudate of some acacia species, notably acacia Senegal and acacia Seyal, found across Africa’s so-called gum arabic belt.

Gum arabic is one of Sudan’s primary export commodities, linking the country to international markets in Europe, Asia and North America, accounting for an estimated 15% of Sudan’s exports.

There are about 1m households or 5m people who are estimated to be either directly or indirectly dependent on the gum arabic sector.

Producers live in or near gum arabic production areas that include villages and forests and take responsibility for cultivating, tapping, collecting and protecting their acacia trees during harvest months between October and February following the rainy season.

In Sudan, the acacia gum tree thrives naturally in a vast belt stretching 500,000 sq. km — roughly the size of France — from Al-Qadarif to Darfur. Recognizing its resilience in the face of droughts and climate change, international donors and African countries have invested in the Great Green Wall project, which aims to afforest the Sahel strip to combat desertification.

Akol Miyen Kuol, a South Sudanese expert on the region, told Arab News that the ongoing conflict in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces would have a negative impact on the world economy due to the widespread use of gum arabic.

 

“At the local and national levels, if the ongoing war in Sudan doesn’t stop quickly, it will terribly affect those who collect the gum arabic and the general income for the country,” he said.

Daniel Haddad, director of the UK-based trading company Agrigum International Ltd., told Arab News that Sudanese gum arabic was “the gold standard and finds extensive use in soft drinks, pharmaceuticals and various other industries. The significance of Sudan’s production lies in its superior quality.”

“Port Sudan is currently focused solely on humanitarian relief efforts,” he added. “As a result, there are no incoming or outgoing shipments of commercial products and there is a lack of administrative personnel available to handle banking and official paperwork. Consequently, despite the presence of gum arabic in Sudan, there is currently no significant export activity taking place.”

The impact of the fighting in Sudan is poised to wreak havoc as Sudan contributed 66 percent of the global supply of gum arabic, according to a 2018 report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development.

INNUMBERS

$111m Sudan’s exports, making it the world’s second-largest exporter.

88,000 tons Total export of raw gum in 2021.

80% Sudan’s share of global gum arabic trade between 1950s and early 1990s.

70% Sudanese exporters’ share of global gum arabic supply.

25,000 tons Average annual Sudanese gum arabic exports.

50,000 tons Average amount of exports in the 1950s and 1960s.

$10m Value of FAO-financed Sudan’s forestry project to support gum arabic farmers, protect trees.

“If the situation continues, it will cause concern, but we’re pretty confident something will happen,” Haddad said.

“For each customer, each company, each product, gum arabic has a different use in the application. It could somehow get replaced, but customers don’t like artificial ingredients.”

Sudanese gum arabic, which accounts for 70 percent of the country’s exports, is so critical to the global economy that the US granted an exception for it even amid its embargoes on Sudan.

“I remain optimistic that gum arabic could serve as a catalyst to bring people together and facilitate the resolution of existing problems,” Haddad said.

 

 

“By addressing the challenges surrounding gum arabic production and export, it is possible to restore a sense of normalcy.

“This, in turn, would enable the people of Sudan and Khartoum to return to their homes, access essential resources such as food and electricity, and rebuild their lives. It is my sincere hope that such positive developments will unfold and contribute to a return to normalcy for the affected regions.”

 

Decoder

Gum arabic

Extracted from the sap of some Acacia tree species, gum arabic has plenty of uses, such as stabilizer in soft drinks and multiple uses for other foods. It is also used in watercolor paints, ceramic glaze, printmaking, pyrotechnics, glues, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, wine, shoe polish and lickable adhesives for postage stamps and envelopes. Gum arabic is one of the main products of Sudan, which accounts for 30 per cent of total exports worldwide. Because of the war in Sudan, producers — such as soft drink giants Coca-Cola and Pepsi — and the local market are in dire straits.


Iran releases 1 Danish, 2 Austrian citizens in operation involving Oman, Belgium

Updated 02 June 2023

Iran releases 1 Danish, 2 Austrian citizens in operation involving Oman, Belgium

  • Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said he was “very relieved” that Kamran Ghaderi and Massud Mossaheb were being brought home
  • Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg thanked the foreign ministers of Belgium and Oman for providing “valuable support”

BERLIN: Iran has released one Danish and two Austrian citizens, the European countries said Friday, thanking Oman and Belgium for their help in getting the trio freed.
Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said he was “very relieved” that Kamran Ghaderi and Massud Mossaheb were being brought home after “years of arduous imprisonment in Iran.”
Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said that he was “happy and relieved that a Danish citizen is on his way home to his family in Denmark after imprisonment in Iran.” He didn’t name the person, saying their identity was “a personal matter” and he couldn’t go into details.
Schallenberg thanked the foreign ministers of Belgium and Oman for providing “valuable support,” without elaborating on what form it took. Løkke Rasmussen also thanked Belgium and said that “Oman played an important role.”
Last week, a prisoner exchange between Belgium and Iran returned to Tehran an Iranian diplomat convicted of attempting to bomb exiles in France, Assadollah Assadi. Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, looking visibly gaunt, headed back to Brussels as part of the swap.
There was no immediate word on what, if anything, Iran obtained in return for the latest releases.
On Friday, Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib tweeted that her country was “unwavering in our dedication to advocating for other Europeans who are being arbitrarily detained” and had “successfully secured the release of two Austrians and one Dane who were unjustly held in detention in Iran.”
Belgium’s prime minister, Alexander De Croo, said he had briefed his Austrian and Danish counterparts at a Thursday meeting in Moldova on the “imminent release” of the three prisoners “heading to Belgium via Oman.”
Iranian state media and officials did not immediately acknowledge a release on Friday, which is part of the weekend in the Islamic Republic.
Oman often serves an interlocutor between Iran and the West and brings released captives out of the Islamic Republic. An Oman Royal Air Force Gulfstream IV, which had been on the ground in Tehran for several days, took off shortly before news of the European trio’s releases came out. It landed later Friday in Oman’s capital, Muscat.
The releases also come after Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq visited Iran on his first trip there since becoming the Arab nation’s ruler in 2020.
Ghaderi is an Iranian-Austrian businessman who was arrested in 2016 and later sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly spying for the US, charges strongly rejected by his supporters. His family had criticized Austria for being silent on his case in recent years.
Mossaheb, also an Iranian-Austrian businessman, was arrested in 2019 and received a 10-year prison sentence after what Amnesty International called “a grossly unfair trial for vague national security offenses.” Amnesty had said Mossaheb suffered from heart failure and diabetes, making his imprisonment that much more dangerous for him.
Iran has detained a number of foreigners and dual nationals over the years, accusing them of espionage or other state security offenses and sentencing them following secretive trials in which rights groups say they have been denied due process.
Critics have repeatedly accused Iran of using such prisoners as bargaining chips with the West.
Schallenberg said his ministry would spare no effort to secure the release of a third Austrian national who remains in detention in Iran and whose case is currently on appeal.
Iran, facing Western sanctions over its rapidly advancing nuclear program, has experienced protests in recent months and economic strain. However, it also reached a detente with Saudi Arabia through Chinese mediation, and the International Atomic Energy Agency dropped two inquiries into the country’s nuclear program.


NATO chief to visit Turkiye for Erdogan inauguration

Updated 02 June 2023

NATO chief to visit Turkiye for Erdogan inauguration

  • Trip comes as pressure builds on Recep Tayyip Erdogan to drop his opposition to Sweden joining NATO
  • Turkiye and Hungary are the only two member countries yet to ratify Sweden’s membership bid

BRUSSELS: NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg will visit Turkiye at the weekend to attend the inauguration of re-elected President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and hold talks with him, the alliance said Friday.
The trip comes as pressure builds on Erdogan to drop his opposition to Sweden joining NATO.
Stoltenberg on Thursday said during a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Norway that he would soon visit Ankara to work toward Sweden joining “as early as possible,” after speaking with Erdogan by phone earlier this week.
The NATO statement said Stoltenberg would attend Erdogan’s inauguration on Saturday. The Turkish president was last week re-elected to serve another five-year term.
The statement said the visit would extend into Sunday and Stoltenberg would “have bilateral meetings with President Erdogan and with senior Turkish officials.”
NATO member Turkiye has dragged its feet over admitting Sweden to the military alliance. It and Hungary are the only two member countries yet to ratify Sweden’s membership bid.
Finland formally joined the alliance in April.
Erdogan has accused Sweden of being a haven for “terrorists,” especially members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom on Thursday said his country has fulfilled all its commitments to join, and “it is time for Turkiye and Hungary to start the ratification of the Swedish membership to NATO.”
Many of the ministers who attended the Oslo meeting said they wanted to see Sweden join before a NATO summit in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius on July 11-12.
Stoltenberg has said that goal is “absolutely possible.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, whose country is the dominant member of NATO, also said on Thursday that “we fully anticipate” Sweden joining by the Vilnius summit.


From Jordan, Jill Biden arrives in Cairo as part of Mideast tour aiming to empower women, youth

Updated 02 June 2023

From Jordan, Jill Biden arrives in Cairo as part of Mideast tour aiming to empower women, youth

  • The tour marks Biden’s first visit to the Middle East as first lady
  • Her six-day trip across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe seeks to empower women and promote education for young people

CAIRO: Jill Biden arrived in Cairo on Friday, on the second leg of her six-day trip across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe that seeks to empower women and promote education for young people.
The first lady arrived in the Egyptian capital from Amman, Jordan, where she attended the wedding of Crown Prince Hussein and Saudi architect Rajwa Alsei f on Thursday. She is traveling to Morocco on Saturday before heading to Portugal, the final stop of her tour, on Monday.
The nuptials in Jordan drew a star-studded list — headlined by Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate — but also held deep significance for the region, emphasizing continuity in an Arab state prized for its long standing stability.
Egypt is one of the largest recipients in the Mideast of American economic and military aid and a longstanding US ally. However, in recent years, US lawmakers have sought to condition that aid on human rights improvements and reforms.
Biden was greeted on the tarmac by Entissar Amer, Egypt’s first lady, and was later to meet with President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi before visiting a technical school in the capital.
Biden’s spokesperson, Vanessa Valdivia, told The Associated Press last week that the first lady’s visit to Egypt will also focus on US investments that support education programs.
Since coming to power in 2013, El-Sisi’s government has overseen a wide-ranging crackdown on dissent, jailing thousands. The government have targeted not only Islamist political opponents but also pro-democracy activists, journalists and online critics.
The tour marks Biden’s first visit to the Middle East as first lady. She traveled to Namibia and Kenya in February.


Lebanon’s Hezbollah says not linked to accused in UNIFIL peacekeeper killing

Updated 02 June 2023

Lebanon’s Hezbollah says not linked to accused in UNIFIL peacekeeper killing

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Friday denied that five men accused by a military tribunal of killing an Irish UN peacekeeper in 2022 were linked to the armed Shiite group.
A court document filed on Thursday had identified some of the five as members of Hezbollah and allied movement Amal, according to a senior Lebanese judicial source.
Hezbollah media official Mohammad Afif said the five accused were not members of the group, which controls the part of southern Lebanon where last year’s attack took place, and also denied that the indictment had described them as Hezbollah members.
Private Sean Rooney, 23, was killed on Dec. 15 in the first fatal attack on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon since 2015.
Afif said Hezbollah had played a big role after the killing in reducing tensions and in local people’s cooperation with the army and judicial investigation.
His comments are the first by a Hezbollah official since Thursday’s reported indictment. The Amal Movement, which is headed by Lebanon’s parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, has so far declined to comment.
The judicial source had said evidence was drawn from camera recordings in which the accused refer to themselves as members of Hezbollah. A second judicial source confirmed that camera evidence was mentioned in the 30-page court document.
Hezbollah has previously denied involvement in the killing, calling it an “unintentional incident” that took place solely between the town’s residents and the UNIFIL peacekeeping force.


Restoration lags for Syria’s famed Roman ruins at Palmyra and other war-battered historic sites

Updated 02 June 2023

Restoration lags for Syria’s famed Roman ruins at Palmyra and other war-battered historic sites

  • Many sites were damaged by the war and more recently by the deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck a wide area of neighboring Turkiye and also Syria in February.
  • Before the war, Palmyra — one of Syria’s six UNESCO world heritage sites — was the country’s archaeological crown jewel, a tourist attraction that drew tens of thousands of visitors each year

PALMYRA: At the height of the Daesh group’s rampage across Syria, the world watched in horror as the militants blew up an iconic arch and temple in the country’s famed Roman ruins in Palmyra.
Eight years later, Daesh has lost its hold but restoration work on the site has been held up by security issues, leftover IS land mines and lack of funding.
Other archaeological sites throughout Syria face similar problems, both in areas held by the government and by the opposition. They were damaged by the war or, more recently, by the deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck a wide area of neighboring Turkiye and also Syria in February.
Youssef Kanjou, a former director of Syria’s Aleppo National Museum, said the situation of heritage sites in his country is a “disaster.”


Without a coordinated preservation and restoration effort, said Kanjou, now a researcher at Tübingen University in Germany, “We will lose what was not destroyed by the war or the earthquake.”
Before the war, Palmyra — one of Syria’s six UNESCO world heritage sites — was the country’s archaeological crown jewel, a tourist attraction that drew tens of thousands of visitors each year. The ancient city was the capital of an Arab client state of the Roman Empire that briefly rebelled and carved out its own kingdom in the third century, led by Queen Zenobia.
In more recent times, the area had darker associations. It was home to the Tadmur prison, where thousands of opponents of the Assad family’s rule in Syria were reportedly tortured. IS demolished the prison after capturing the town.
The militants later destroyed Palmyra’s historic temples of Bel and Baalshamin and the Arch of Triumph, viewing them as monuments to idolatry, and beheaded an elderly antiquities scholar who had dedicated his life to overseeing the ruins.
Today, the road through the desert from Homs to Palmyra is dotted with Syrian army checkpoints. In the town adjacent to the ancient site, some shops have reopened, but signs of war remain in the form of charred vehicles and burned-out or boarded-up stores and houses.
The Palmyra Museum is closed, and the much-loved lion statue that used to stand in front of it has been moved to Damascus for restoration and safekeeping.
Nevertheless, Syrian and foreign tourists have begun to trickle back.


“We thought it was impossible that foreigners would return to Palmyra,” said Qais Fathallah, who used to run a hotel there but fled to Homs when IS took over. Now he is back in Palmyra, operating a restaurant, where he said he serves tourists regularly.
On a recent day, a group of tourists from countries including the United Kingdom, Canada and China, and another, with Syrian university students, were wandering through the ruins.
Some of the Syrian tourists had visited in better days. For communication engineering student Fares Mardini, it was the first time.
“Now I’ve finally come, and I see so much destruction. It’s something really upsetting,” he said. “I hope it can be restored and return to what it was.”
In 2019, international experts convened by UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural agency, said detailed studies would need to be done before starting major restorations.
Youmna Tabet, program specialist at the Arab states unit of UNESCO’s World Heritage Center, said restoration work often involves difficult choices, particularly if there isn’t enough original material for rebuilding.
“Is it worth it to rebuild it with very little authenticity or should we rather focus on having 3D documentation of how it was?” she said.
Missions to the site were held up at first by security issues, including land mines that had to be cleared. IS cells still occasionally carry out attacks in the area.
Money is also a problem.
“There is a big lack of funding so far, for all the sites in Syria,” Tabet said, noting that international donors have been wary of breaching sanctions on Syria, which have been imposed by the United States, the European Union and others.
US sanctions exempt activities related to preservation and protection of cultural heritage sites, but sanctions-related obstacles remain, such as a ban on exporting US-made items to Syria.
Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government, has begun restoring Palmyra’s triumphal arch, the largest-scale project underway to date at the site.


“We have some funding from some friends in some places, but it is not sufficient in relation to the disaster that occurred,” said Mohammad Nazir Awad, director general of Syria’s department of Antiquities and Museums.
It doesn’t have to be this way, said Maamoun Abdulkarim, who headed the antiquities department at the time of the IS incursion. Abdulkarim pointed to the international push to recover damaged heritage sites in the city of Mosul in neighboring Iraq, also controlled by the militants for some time, as an example of a successful restoration.
“We need to make some separation between political affairs and cultural heritage affairs,” said Abdulkarim, now a professor at the University of Sharjah. He warned that damaged structures are in danger of deteriorating further or collapsing as the rehabilitation work is delayed.
The deadly Feb. 6 earthquake caused further destruction at some sites already damaged by the war. This includes the old city of Aleppo, which is under the control of the government, and the Byzantine-era church of Saint Simeon in the Aleppo countryside, in an area controlled by Turkish-backed opposition forces.
About one-fifth of the church was damaged in the earthquake, including the basilica arch, said Hassan Al-Ismail, a researcher with Syrians for Heritage a non-governmental organization. He said the earthquake compounded earlier damage caused by bombings and vandalism.
The group tried to stabilize the structure with wooden and metal supports and to preserve the stones that fell from it for later use in restoration.
Ayman Al-Nabo, head of antiquities in the opposition-held city of Idlib, appealed for international assistance in stabilizing and restoring sites damaged by the earthquake.
Antiquities should be seen as “neutral to the political reality,” he said. “This is global human heritage, which belongs to the whole world, not just the Syrians.”