As civil war rages in Sudan, a surge in gold production is helping finance and arm the warring factions. Most of the mining is done on a small scale by villagers who process the gold using mercury and cyanide, posing serious threats to their health and to the environment.
Amid Sudan’s brutal civil war, where famine threatens millions of displaced people, many have turned to small-scale gold mining, risking their lives by using toxic chemicals to extract the precious metal. But this pursuit of survival comes at a devastating cost to public health and the environment.
Across thousands of communities, mercury and cyanide used in the mining process are poisoning miners and their families, degrading farmland, and seeping into underground water reserves. After floods in 2022 and again last year, toxins even reached the Nile River, endangering the country’s most vital water source.
Compounding the crisis, the largely unregulated gold trade — now fetching record prices on global markets — has been captured by warring forces. Rather than offering security, gold now fuels the very conflict that is devastating Sudan, financing armed groups as they prolong a war that has gone on for two years and deepened the country’s suffering.
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