Manufactured Starvation: How Imperialism, Capitalist Extraction, and War Are Strangling Sudan

Across the Horn of Africa, the catastrophic violence tearing through Sudan is routinely framed by Western corporate media through a deeply orientalist lens. It is described as an inevitable, tragic "tribal feud" or an unexplainable "civil war" between rival military generals. This narrative is a deliberate obfuscation. What is happening in Sudan today—manifested in skyrocketing food prices in Omdurman, engineered famine across Darfur, and the destruction of public health infrastructure in North Kordofan—is a direct consequence of global capitalist extraction, foreign imperialist intervention, and local warlord capitalism.

Famine is rarely a natural disaster. It is a political weapon and an outcome of economic subjugation. When basic staples become unpayable luxuries for working-class families while gold, livestock, and agricultural land are systematically harvested to enrich Gulf monarchies, Western corporations, and local military elites, we are witnessing the stark reality of modern imperialism. To understand Sudan’s food crisis is to understand how global capital converts human life into collateral damage for resource dominance.

The Violence of Capitalist Price Gouging

In urban centers like Omdurman, the assault on the working class is mediated through market mechanics, inflation, and structural hoarders. Over the past month alone, basic food and consumer prices jumped by 20% to 25%, with essential survival goods surging by over 40%. In working-class neighborhoods like El Thawra, families face daily price shifts dictated by local monopolists, merchant cartels, and war profiteers.

Key Commodity Inflation in Urban Markets

• Sugar: Rose to ~5,000 SDG/kg (up from 4,500–4,800 SDG).

• Powdered Milk: Climed from 26,000–28,000 SDG/kg to between 31,000 and 38,000 SDG/kg (an increase of up to 35%).

• Cheese: Spiked to 22,000 SDG/kg (up 22% from 18,000 SDG).

• Cooking Oil & Flour: Cooking oil reached ~12,000 SDG/liter, while flour sits at ~4,000 SDG/kg.

• Peanut Paste (Dakwa): Crucial for basic dietary protein, now costing ~14,000 SDG/kg.

This hyperinflation is not an accidental byproduct of logistics; it is the logical function of a commodified food network during wartime. When nutrition is treated as a tradeable commodity rather than a fundamental human right, military factions and black-market syndicates extract immense profits from scarcity while working households are pushed into slow starvation.

Manufactured Famine in Darfur

While urban centers face structural price gouging, the situation across Darfur has escalated into a manufactured famine. Civilian groups, including the General Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees and local Emergency Response Rooms, report that markets across Central and North Darfur are almost completely depleted.

Trade Siege and Market Collapse

Crucial trade arteries—most notably the Ed Debba–Mellit road connecting Northern State to North Darfur—have been blockaded by armed factions. Storage facilities and food warehouses have been systematically looted or bombed, wiping out local food reserves:

• Central Darfur (Nierteti): A single sack of millet now costs between 12,000 and 20,000 SDG, a bottle of cooking oil sells for 5,000 SDG, and basic soap or salt costs 2,000 SDG per item.

• North Darfur (El Malha): A bottle of corn has skyrocketed to 34,000–36,000 SDG, while staples like lentils (16,000 SDG/kg) and rice (14,000 SDG/kg) are completely unpayable for displaced families.

• Fresh Produce Shortage: Vegetable markets have been destitute of produce for 2 to 3 months, with supplies reduced to sparse citrus fruits selling for 2,000 SDG each.

Agricultural Collapse and the Disruption of Pastoral Life

This market collapse is compounded by environmental degradation driven by climate change. Erratic rainfall and severe drought have dried out farmland, preventing essential grain crops like millet and sorghum from germinating.

Under normal circumstances, agrarian communities rely on subsistence crops to survive market shocks. However, record-high prices for seeds and fertilizers—combined with acute fuel shortages for tractor ploughing—have left vast agricultural tracts uncultivated. To survive, agrarian and pastoral communities are forced to sell their remaining livestock at severely depressed prices. As pastures dry up and animal feed costs soar, the traditional pastoral economy is being dismantled, stripping families of their final safety net.

The Geopolitics of Extraction

Sudan’s violence cannot be isolated from foreign capital and imperialist alignment. The war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is a proxy war fueled by regional and global powers vying for control over Sudan’s vast natural assets.

1. Gold Extraction & Gulf Sub-Imperialism: The RSF built a private financial empire by seizing control of gold mines across Darfur and Northern Sudan. Hundreds of millions of dollars in smuggled gold flow directly to financial hubs in Dubai (UAE). In return, regional patrons furnish warlords with military hardware, logistical support, and diplomatic cover.

2. Zionist Normalization & Imperialist Alignment: Prior to the war, both the SAF and RSF leadership competed for Washington and Tel Aviv's endorsement by rushing to sign onto the "Abraham Accords" and normalize relations with the Israeli occupation state. Zionist and Western security apparatuses view Sudan through an extractive lens—prioritizing military regimes that guarantee access to Red Sea ports, secure maritime trade routes, and allow foreign corporate land-grabbing for industrial agriculture.

3. Resource Theft and Sovereignty Disruption: External capital treats Sudan not as a nation of 45 million people, but as a resource bank for raw gold, cheap livestock, and fertile land. The destruction of public infrastructure ensures that no sovereign, anti-imperialist, or popular democratic government can emerge to nationalize its own resources.

Weaponized Infrastructure

The tactic of weaponizing basic survival infrastructure is visible in El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan. The city currently holds around 105,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) fleeing fighting in West Kordofan.

In response to the influx of displaced populations, siege tactics and armed attacks have disrupted 70% of El Obeid’s municipal drinking water supply. Depriving a besieged, overcrowded city of clean drinking water during peak heat has triggered a severe cholera outbreak. The destruction of municipal water infrastructure is a classic mechanism of siege warfare—designed to weaken public resistance, break social cohesion, and induce human dependency.

Impending Climate Hazards and Internationalist Solidarity

The humanitarian emergency is set to deepen with the arrival of the rainy season. Torrential rains will turn dirt roads into impassable mud, completely isolating communities across Darfur and Kordofan and making external aid delivery impossible.

The Path Ahead: Mobilizing Against Imperialist Exploitation

Addressing the crisis in Sudan requires moving beyond liberal calls for Western "humanitarian intervention"—a framework that historically serves as a cover for imperialist occupation and foreign management.

Instead, anti-imperialist, anti-colonial, and anti-capitalist movements globally must focus on:

• Targeting Foreign Military Pipelines: Demanding an immediate end to foreign military backing, weapons transfers, and logistical support provided by regional sub-imperial powers to Sudanese warlords.

• Exposing Extraction Networks: Disrupting the financial networks and commodity chains that profit from illicit Sudanese gold, livestock, and agricultural exports.

• Direct Solidarity with Popular Grassroots: Supporting indigenous mutual-aid networks, local Emergency Response Rooms, resistance committees, and agricultural cooperatives that are actively providing food, water, and medical care outside the logic of capitalist markets and state coercion.