Paul Amara, Center for Sahel-Saharan Security Strategies, Centre4s.org

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has strong diplomatic relations with the Sahel, also based on the precious metal: gold. Concerned countries are: Sudan, Libya, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, and Mauritania. Togo, a gold producer, is also of interest. All these countries are also fighting terrorism, which the UAE is combating everywhere. In 2024, the UAE imported nearly 1,400 tons of gold, worth over $105 billion, more than half of which—$748 billion—came from Africa.1 While its traceability is not always proven, the UAE promises transparency. Between 2018 and 2023, they provided $750 million in aid to the then G5 Sahel countries.

While not a producer, the UAE presents itself as a strategic hub for the global gold trade. It possesses a significant gold ecosystem: refineries, numerous traders, cutting-edge logistics companies, and free trade zones. It accounts for 11% of global gold exports and boasts over 4,000 jewelry workshops and 1,200 retail stores employing 60,000 people2. To play this leading role, Dubai needs a sustainable and large-scale supply. The profitability of its refining industry also depends on it. Despite repeated commitments to more transparent sourcing, the UAE continues to accept gold from informal sources.        

Gold of uncertain origin.

Sudan, with nearly 40,000 exploration sites and 60 refining companies, is the leading Arab gold producer. Its companies, spread across 13 of the country’s 18 states, are primarily located in the Nile, northern, and Red Sea regions. In 2024, the UAE purchased 29 tons of gold from Sudan, compared to 17 tons in 2023. That same year, amid the escalating civil conflict, the United States sanctioned 11 companies, many of them UAE-registered, for facilitating the financing of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) with gold. Coincidentally, the war in Sudan began in April 2023.

Significant other quantities pass through neighboring countries: 27 tons from Egypt, 18 from Chad, and from Libya. In Libya, the Al-Owaynat mountain range, located on the border with Sudan and Egypt, contains a vast gold deposit. The UAE is accused of purchasing, through various channels, that gold from Marshal Haftar. In 2020, Libyan refineries released 450 tons of gold onto the market. Since then, Libya has lost between 50 and 55 gold tons, worth nearly $3 billion, to traffickers. In exchange for that gold, the UAE reportedly provides the Libyan Revolutionary Guard (FRG) with logistical support, weapons, various equipment, and medical care. These exchanges fuel the war economy. Refineries, both official and unofficial, and airports, sometimes operating under the same name, are considered vulnerable transit points.

The Central Sahel: highly profitable.

In Mali, Africa’s second-largest gold producer, 81% of production is extracted by companies linked to the UAE. The kidnapping of a retired Emirati general on September 23, 2025, starkly highlighted that reality. Located on a vast farm, 40 km south of Bamako, with a 700-meter-long airstrip, the estate boasts fruit trees, logs, and a variety of animals, primarily domestic mammals and birds. Some believe its core business, or rather its main activity, was the gold trade between Mali, the UAE, and other destinations. In 2023, the sale of this Malian gold generated 1,926 billion CFA francs3. Significant volumes exported to the UAE were also reported from Burkina Faso and Togo, even though the latter country does not produce gold on such a scale. A portion of this gold is believed to originate from the region. Over 52 tons of Togolese gold, worth $4 billion, were reportedly exported to the UAE in 2024. That same year, nearly 32% of Burkina Faso 4 gold was allegedly sold to the UAE. Also in the region, a seizure of 1,578 kilograms of Nigerien gold took place at Addis Ababa airport in early January 2024. Valued at over 60 billion CFA francs, the shipment was intended to Dubai without any official documentation. In 2022, Niger officially exported 235 kg of gold worth less than €10 million, according to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). However, investigations from Dubai revealed Emirati gold imports from Niger reaching €457 million, highlighting a significant discrepancy attributed to illicit trafficking. The country’s authorities took action, including replacing 82 customs, police, forestry and gendarmerie officers stationed at Diori-Hamani Airport in Niamey. Not convinced by that sort of settlement, Transparency International denounced ‘’maintaining an artistic flaw” on that illicit traffic by Niger authorities. At the end, though not clarifying the situation, Niamey did order to freeze all existing mining exploitation rights.

Reorganization of the sector in the Sahel.

The three countries, around the Liptako-Gourma region, have undertaken to reorganize the gold sector in order to maximize profits, in a context of rising prices for the precious metal and of the need for financial resources to combat terrorism. They are also making it an object of sovereignty, taking control of mines, renegotiating contracts, and building refineries.5

 In May 2025 6 the Emirati Minister of State, Sheikh Shakhboot Bin Nahyan Al Nahyan, visited Bamako, Ouagadougou, and Niamey. In Mali, he sealed an agreement strengthening the security partnership with the extension of the defense protocol signed in 2019. Cooperation also extends to strategic investments in solar energy, notably the Touna power plant in the Ségou region, as well as in the agricultural and health sectors. Both parties also reaffirmed their joint commitment to the fight against terrorism. Announced following the Council of Ministers meeting on November 25, 2025, the construction of the 93 MW power plant will be carried out by the Dubai-based Phanes Group, at a cost of $106.4 million, or 69.8 billion CFA francs. In Ouagadougou, the minister discussed ways to revitalize bilateral cooperation, which he described as long-standing and exemplary. This diplomatic initiative concluded in Niamey. According to Niger’s public television, it is part of strengthening cooperation between Niger and the UAE and exploring ways to develop the bilateral partnership in various areas of common interest. No official statement was made public regarding gold in any of the three countries. Was that a desire to avoid upsetting any party? Or a wish to maintain « confidentiality » in a sector where relationships operate inevitably in a foggy area?

Other countries with a flourishing trade.

In 2024, Chad gold exports from artisanal mining to the United Arab Emirates reached $2 billion.7 The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding to develop the sector in June 2023. This agreement covers exploration and mining, as well as training and the acquisition of mining-related technologies. In October 2023, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) confirmed the scale of this reality: more than $3 billion, approximately 1.5 trillion CFA francs, in gold exports, had not been recorded in Chad’s public accounts. Under pressure from the IMF, the authorities committed themselves to including mining revenues in the state budget starting in 2026. Also in 2023, Chad announced the upcoming construction of four processing plants, with a capacity of between 300 and 1,000 tons per day.

Between 2019 and 2020, Cameroon’s official gold exports to the UAE amounted to 0.8 million USD, only or approximately 480 million CFA francs. Meanwhile, Dubai’s declared imports from Cameroon reached 340 million USD or approximately 204 billion CFA francs! As a result, Cameroon was suspended from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in 2021. In Mauritania, the Canadian group Kinross Gold operates the Tasiast gold mine, whose production increased from nearly 170,000 ounces in 2021 to 538,000 ounces in 2022. Gold mining generated over USD 780 million for the state in 2020. Furthermore, the unofficial market is estimated to have up to 70% of its production going to Dubai.

Finally, in their gold transactions with the Sahel, the UAE demonstrates a weak transparency. By capturing the artisanal gold mining products, the risk that they are sourcing gold from disreputable actors is real. Indeed, in many Sahel countries, terrorists have seized traditional mining sites. However, Dubai is presenting itself, and is accepted, as a technical partner in the reorganization of the gold sector in the Sahel countries, particularly in Mali and Chad.

1. Monday, November 17, 2025, African Gold: A Strategic Issue for the United Arab Emirates, Deutsche Welle
2. MAWADDA ISKANDAR, November 24, 2025, The Gold Empire: The Growing Grip of the United Arab Emirates on Africa’s Mineral Wealth – Investig’action
3. November 2, 2024 Mining in Mali: Gold at the Heart of Sovereignty (msn.com)
4. Ministry of Economy and Finance of Burkina Faso, National Institute of Statistics and Demography – Quarterly Note on Foreign Trade Statistics, Fourth Quarter 2024

4. Note_Statistiques_Trade_Extérieur_4T2024 _VDEF_09-04-25.pdf

December 4, 2023 https://leconomistedufaso.com/2023/12/04/secteur-minier-le-burkina-soffre-sa-premiere-raffinerie-dor/

5. May 21, 2025 The Sahel at the Heart of the Emirati Agenda – EchosMedias

Editorial Staff Published on September 27, 2025 at 6:25 PM Chad: In In 2024, gold exports to the United Arab Emirates generated 2

6. On November 26, 2025, ActuCameroun reported that Akere Muna denounced a « massive plundering » of Cameroonian gold – actucameroun.info
7. September 29, 2023: Mauritania: Abundant gold benefits neither the state nor artisanal gold miners