Industrialization

Sudan is one of Africa’s largest gold producers. In recent years before the 2023 war, official exports exceeded 40 tonnes annually — and the informal, undeclared trade was estimated to be several times larger. The country also holds substantial reserves of chromite, iron ore, copper, zinc, manganese, uranium, and several other commercially significant minerals. By geological endowment alone, Sudan is not a poor country. Yet almost none of this wealth has translated into development. The gold gets extracted, much of it illegally, and moves — through the UAE, primarily — into international markets with minimal benefit to Sudan beyond whatever the diggers themselves earn in often dangerous conditions. The processing, refining, trading, logistics, and finance that capture most of the value in a mining supply chain all happen elsewhere. ...

Every solar charge controller Sudan imports. Every mobile phone in a displaced person’s hand in Port Sudan. Every agricultural sensor, every medical monitor, every radio relay on a Nile ferry — all of them run on chips fabricated in Taiwan, South Korea, China, or the United States. Sudan has no role in making any of them. The question this article asks is: should it, can it, and if so, where does it begin? ...