A United Arab Emirates ban on all trade with Sudan has badly impacted the North African nation’s gold exports, spurring it to seek alternative buyers in Oman and elsewhere.
The UAE is Sudan’s biggest trading partner, with two-way flows totaling $2.2 billion last year, International Monetary Fund data shows. While Sudan’s military-backed government formally cut ties with the UAE in June for allegedly arming the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, its adversary in a civil war, the Gulf nation remained a key market for its bullion. The UAE denies aiding the RSF.
An internal report from Sudan’s Transportation Ministry that was seen by Bloomberg shows the UAE decided to halt trade with Sudan on Aug. 7, a ban that extended to the shipment of products in transit from Asia and other Gulf countries. The document didn’t spell out reasons for the UAE’s move.
UAE ports were instructed not to handle cargoes destined for — or coming from — Port Sudan, a directive from the AD Ports Group seen by Bloomberg and a notice from shipping group CMA CGM SA show.
Two Sudanese officials confirmed most of the nation’s gold exports to the UAE had ceased since the ban took effect and that the government had reached a preliminary agreement with Oman to buy its bullion.
A Mining Ministry delegation visited Oman and Bahrain in recent days to discuss alternative shipment routes for the gold, according to the officials, who asked not be identified because they aren’t authorized to comment.
The UAE’s Ministry of Economy and Foreign Affairs, Oman’s foreign affairs ministry and spokespeople for Sudan’s army, Sea Port Authority and Ministry of Mines didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The state-run Sudan News Agency reported last year that Sudan and Qatar had agreed to establish a facility in Doha to absorb gold exports from the North African country. Sudan’s Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim met his counterpart in Doha late last month to discuss the project.
Sudan’s Mining Minister Nour Al-Daem Taha meanwhile held a meeting with his Egyptian counterpart earlier this week, with officials from the state-run Sudanese Mineral Resources Company in attendance. “Sudan is very keen to deepen the Sudanese and Egyptian strategic cooperation in the mining sector,” Taha said in Cairo, according to his office.
The Transportation Ministry report noted that most goods Sudan sourced from the UAE could be bought from Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and that the country will be able to find alternative export markets.
Conflict erupted in Sudan in April 2023, when the military and the RSF failed to agree on a power-sharing accord. The two sides jointly overthrew a civilian-led government in 2021.
