Under the gun: Military and paramilitary actors in Sudan’s agri-food system

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cg.authorship.typesCGIAR single centreen
cg.authorship.typesCGIAR and advanced research instituteen
cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Food Policy Research Instituteen
cg.contributor.affiliationUnited Nations Children's Funden
cg.contributor.donorUnited States Agency for International Developmenten
cg.coverage.countrySudan
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2SD
cg.coverage.regionAfrica
cg.coverage.regionNorthern Africa
cg.creator.identifierDanielle Resnick: 0000-0001-6285-3461en
cg.creator.identifierHala Abushama: 0009-0005-2606-5130en
cg.creator.identifierMosab Ahmed: 0000-0002-1106-5286en
cg.creator.identifierOliver Kirui: 0000-0002-5218-6324en
cg.creator.identifierKhalid Siddig: 0000-0003-1339-4507en
cg.howPublishedGrey Literatureen
cg.identifier.projectIFPRI - Markets, Trade, and Institutions Uniten
cg.identifier.projectIFPRI - Development Strategies and Governance Uniten
cg.identifier.projectIFPRI - Sudan Strategy Support Programen
cg.identifier.publicationRankNot rankeden
cg.number2328en
cg.placeWashington, DCen
cg.reviewStatusInternal Reviewen
cg.subject.impactAreaNutrition, health and food security
cg.subject.impactAreaPoverty reduction, livelihoods and jobs
dc.contributor.authorResnick, Danielleen
dc.contributor.authorAbushama, Halaen
dc.contributor.authorAhmed, Mosab O. M.en
dc.contributor.authorKirui, Oliver K.en
dc.contributor.authorSiddig, Khaliden
dc.date.accessioned2025-03-07T21:41:51Zen
dc.date.available2025-03-07T21:41:51Zen
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/173517
dc.titleUnder the gun: Military and paramilitary actors in Sudan’s agri-food systemen
dcterms.abstractArmed actors, including militaries and paramilitaries, are heavily entrenched in the agrifood systems of several low- and middle-income countries, often resulting in negative implications for both agricultural transformation and democratic transitions. However, the role of armed actors is overlooked in the scholarship on the governance of agricultural value chains. To address this gap, this paper focuses on the role of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan's agrifood system. Through over 50 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, the paper traces how the SAF and RSF initially gained their foothold in the agrifood system and how they interact with each other, and the private sector across diverse value chains. We argue that these actors decide to pursue investments in certain value chains depending on the extent to which the private sector is already involved and the degree of technical complexity required to attain more profitable product upgrading. Based on these considerations, we uncover four strategies used by SAF and RSF in different value chains: exclusive capture and rent extraction, competition through biased licensing and quota allocations, acquiescence to existing private competitors when value-addition is too complex, and innovation when potential is high and the private sector is absent. We show how these strategies manifest across value chains as diverse as livestock, wheat, gum Arabic, and horticulture, with secondary applications to other commodities. Given that economic competition between SAF and RSF was a major factor in the outbreak of the 2023 armed conflict, identifying how these strategies emerged and manifested not only contributes to the literature on business-state relations but also expands insights about the political economy antecedents of large-scale conflict.en
dcterms.accessRightsOpen Access
dcterms.audienceAcademicsen
dcterms.bibliographicCitationResnick, Danielle; Abushama, Hala; Ahmed, Mosab; Kirui, Oliver Kiptoo; and Siddig, Khalid. 2025. Under the gun: Military and paramilitary actors in Sudan’s agri-food system. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2328. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/173517en
dcterms.extent36 p.en
dcterms.isPartOfIFPRI Discussion Paperen
dcterms.issued2025-03-07en
dcterms.languageen
dcterms.licenseCopyrighted; all rights reserved
dcterms.publisherInternational Food Policy Research Instituteen
dcterms.relationhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/163106en
dcterms.relationhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/163749en
dcterms.relationhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/142128en
dcterms.subjectagricultural transformationen
dcterms.subjectfood systemsen
dcterms.subjectmilitary operationsen
dcterms.subjectpolitical aspectsen
dcterms.subjectvalue chainsen
dcterms.typeWorking Paper

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