A ceiling damaged by shelling shrapnel at a displaced persons center in El Fasher, Sudan, in October.El Tayeb Siddig/Reuters
Three of the most catastrophic wars in Africa today have been fuelled by a fierce competition for gold, oil and other natural resources, a new study by an African-focused research group has found.
The wars in Sudan, Congo and the Sahel region, which are now among the world’s worst humanitarian crises, have all been heavily influenced by bitter conflicts over control of key resources, according to the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, a British-based think tank.
Africa is famed for its vast stocks of resources and raw materials – including gold, diamonds, critical minerals, oil and gas – but the battles over those resources have contributed to a soaring death toll in the continent, the study says.
Political violence, including full-scale wars, has more than doubled in Africa over the past six years, the foundation said in the report released on Wednesday.
“Increased resource competition emerges as a specific and key driver of conflict,” it said. “Africa’s security environment and domestic resources are locked in a deathly grip.”
The non-profit foundation, created in 2006 by Sudanese telecommunications billionaire Mo Ibrahim, noted that violent conflicts have also increased in Europe and the Middle East in recent years. “But what is unique to Africa is its specific link to resource competition and the fact that this growing insecurity threatens any progress on the road to economic and social development, which are still far from being achieved,” it said.
Displaced families take shelter in a school in Omdurman, Sudan. The war has forced 12 million to flee their homes.The Associated Press
In Sudan, a disastrous war that erupted in 2023 has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced 12 million to flee their homes. The two main warring parties are both financing their operations with gold revenue, including a massive illicit trade in smuggled gold, while their foreign allies keep funding the two sides to maintain their access to the resource, the report said.
Egypt, Russia and the United Arab Emirates are among the countries that have stoked the Sudan war to win regional influence and access to Sudan’s gold and oil, it said. “Competition for control of gold mines and oil fields has fuelled violence against local communities, displacement, and atrocities,” it said.
The paramilitary group Sudanese Rapid Support Forces display seized gold bars.Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters
Sudan is the fifth-biggest gold producer in Africa, but most of its mines are controlled by armed groups. The Sudanese army controls the gold mines in the northern regions, while its enemy, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, controls gold production in the Darfur region of western Sudan.
Gold smuggling is well-entrenched in Sudan, where the government lost about US$29-billion from tax evasion and fraudulent export declarations in the decade before the war, the report said. By 2023, about 57 per cent of Sudan’s gold production was being smuggled out of the country, with the profits fuelling conflict, it said.
In the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, battles over lucrative cobalt mining sites have helped stoke a Rwanda-backed insurgency that has killed thousands of people and driven millions from their homes.
The region contains 75 per cent of global cobalt production, which is central to many of the world’s most valuable industries, including electric vehicles, but billions of dollars in revenue from mineral smuggling are never officially reported, the study said.
“This has led to intense competition to corner access to these resources, from the state itself to international actors such as China, the United States and Gulf countries, as well as a complex array of armed groups who also compete for control of resource-rich territories,” it said.
In the Sahel region of West Africa – especially Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso – conflicts are increasingly driven by fighting over land and resources such as gold and uranium, the report said.
“Competition between armed groups both extremist and criminal, local communities and foreign actors over the control of these resources continues to exacerbate many of the conflicts,” it said.
“Access to and control of these resources incentivizes terror groups and armed criminals as they offer avenues to purchase weapons and recruit fighters, fuelling a vicious cycle.”