Both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) treat Jabal al-Uqaydat as a strategic source of hard currency. The RSF, evolving from Janjaweed militias, established a network of gold-export companies to bypass state treasury controls. This allowed commanders to fund their paramilitary operations independently. The SAF now fights to reclaim these sites to sustain the central government's dwindling resources.
Military strikes against artisanal miners serve a specific purpose: consolidation. By terrorizing independent workers, these factions force them to flee or submit to military supervisors. This eliminates competition and ensures that gold flows exclusively through channels controlled by the commanders. The violence clears the ground for organized extraction that serves the generals rather than the locals.
The profit loop closes through international smuggling. Gold often moves through shell companies into refineries in the UAE, where it is laundered into usable capital. They destroy the lives of the people who dig the ore, then sell the result to buy more weapons. Violence is simply the tool used to maintain this monopoly.
