Local organisations counted 24,104 homes and 150 public facilities destroyed. Nature alone was not to blame; the scars of mining have reshaped wadi channels, altered flood paths, and reconfigured the local topography.
About 85 kilometres north of Abu Hamad lies Wadi Qubqaba, a flat desert plain punctuated by ranges of hills and mountains. Rugged as it is, the area is rich in gold, making it a centre of extraction from the Meroitic era to the present. It sits along the Keraf, which runs to the Egyptian border.
Qubqaba is now one of Sudan’s largest gold-mining districts and among the country’s most mineral-rich zones. Mining there is not limited to corporate ventures; artisanal or “traditional” mining took root in 2008 and expanded sharply after South Sudan’s 2011 independence, which stripped Sudan of more than 90 per cent of its oil output and ushered in prolonged economic hardship. The subsequent collapse of the local currency and, later, war and widespread insecurity drew successive waves of migrants from across Sudan seeking the precious metal.
Between 1999 and 2001, a regional programme of the French Office of Geological Research and Mining, in cooperation with the Sudanese Geological Research Authority, conducted surveys that led to the discovery of gold deposits in several parts of the country.
Behind the glitter
In 2008, Morocco’s Managem and its Chinese partner Noring Mining signed an exploration agreement with the Sudanese government, represented by the Ministry of Minerals. The pact granted the company exploration rights over roughly 14,000 square kilometres in River Nile State, launching a sustained and intensive period of prospecting that uncovered gold deposits. In 2012, Managem established a production unit operated by its subsidiary Manob. Successive discoveries and solid operational performance prompted the company to build a modern processing plant it says meets international standards.
In its public statements, the firm emphasises continuous improvement in social and environmental approaches and a “responsible care” charter.
Satellite images of the Qabqaba area in 2014 and in 2024
In 2021, Managem acquired 65 per cent of the Qubqaba mine expansion projects after closing a deal with China’s Wanbao. The company estimated the expansion would cost $250 million and lift the mine’s annual output to about 200,000 ounces of gold (one ounce equals 28.35 grammes).
Atar’s correspondent contacted field sources who confirmed that Manob, the operating name for Managem, is the principal concession holder at Qubqaba, matching on-the-ground observations. Manob owns two ore-processing plants and oversees several contractor firms, including Dal Mining, which handles mine logistics. Dal operates in the eastern sector of Wadi Qubqaba; Sandra works to the west. Numerous companies process mining waste; most erect earthen berms formed from excavation around their operational zones, reshaping wadis and the local topography. For example, Managem surrounded its concession square with berms dug around the pits and contractor compounds, and it carried out its latest area expansion in 2021.
A close-up Satellite image of the earth mounds around Manob's operational zones
Following that expansion, large protests erupted in October 2021, before the October 25 coup, at the mill market in Qubqaba, north of Abu Hamad. Some 3,000 artisanal miners gathered, set fire to an administrative office and a fee-collection tent, and attempted to storm Managem’s Abu Hamad offices.
Police intervened with tear gas and warning shots fired into the air to disperse the crowd. The unrest left six people wounded; they were taken to hospitals in Atbara and Abu Hamad, and one was transferred to Khartoum. The Interior Ministry then dispatched joint forces: police, the armed forces, the Rapid Support Forces, and intelligence units, to secure the area and contain tensions.
As Manob and its contractors expanded their footprint, artisanal or “traditional” mining also grew. It began in Qubqaba in 2008 and saw its first major surge in 2011, making the area one of Sudan’s foremost artisanal-mining hubs. A study in Wadi al-Amar, north of Al-Bawqa, found that artisanal mining areas along the Nile rose from 50 hectares in 2016 to 125 hectares in 2024. Although no official statistics exist on the number of miners, Qubqaba’s market, adjacent to the company camp, has evolved from a small bazaar in 2008 into multiple markets as traditional mining expanded.
With little oversight of the sector, several sources who spoke to Atar say artisanal miners use both hand tools and heavy machinery and carry out blasts with smuggled dynamite. While the sole legal supplier of explosives in Sudan is a company affiliated with the Defence Industries Corporation (Tarqet), which holds contracts with concessionaires, those explosives are illicitly trafficked and reach artisanal miners.
Satellite images showing the expansion and location change of Qubqaba market between 2014 and 2024
Satellite Images comparing the area of Abu Hamad and al-Tawahin (gold Mills) market to the north in 2010 (left), 2011 (middle), and 2020 (right). The images show Abu Hamad's expansion between 2010 and 2011, and the steady expansion of al-Tawahin Market after 2011. (highlighted in red are the town and the market areas in 2020.)
Barren land
In the autumn of 2024, health and environmental conditions in Qubqaba and Abu Hamad deteriorated after heavy rains and floods. Residents and miners reported widespread contamination of soil and water from the use of mercury and cyanide in mining, compounded by weak health services. Outbreaks of mining-related illnesses and harmful effects on livestock and crops were documented.
Protests and sit-ins both preceded and followed these events in several areas around Abu Hamad, Fetwar and Al-Jol in 2020, Al-Ubaydiyya and Al-Sulaymaniyya in 2022, and Hillat Yunus in 2025, driven by opposition to toxic substances used in extraction. Locals voiced alarm over environmental pollution and its repercussions for agriculture, water supplies, and daily life, while human-rights reports linked some operating companies to Sudan’s military institutions, heightening public anger.
According to residents who spoke to Atar, most demonstrations centred on environmental harms now visible in rising illness rates, notably increased haemoglobin levels in blood tests, foetal deformities and miscarriages, livestock deaths, and a surge in kidney failure among workers in mining operations. Residents attribute these problems to the chemicals used in extraction, despite Sudan’s ratification of the Minamata Convention banning mercury.
They also noted shifts in flood channels in recent years and the damage to infrastructure and property, all amid official and regulatory silence. Atar sought comment from the executive director of Abu Hamad locality, the contracting and projects department at the Ministry of Minerals, the Sudan Meteorological Authority, and environment and safety units at several mining firms, but received no responses by the time of publication.
Satellite Images showing the expansion of al-Tawahin Market, North of Abu, between 2011 (left), 2016 (middle), and 2024 (right).
An Atar report published after the 2024 floods found that mining sites sit at higher elevations than the city’s water distribution lines. Ongoing digging and excavation are altering the shape and direction of waterways, redirecting old main channels. The creation of water-blocking sites, mills, and newly developed neighbourhoods has forced flows to change course and caused water to pool in several areas.
Mining in the channels
Mining in Wadi Qubqaba affects flood channels directly and indirectly.
geographer Haider Fadlallah
In an interview with Atar, geographer and GIS and remote-sensing specialist Haider Fadlallah said gold occurs both as alluvial deposits in khiran and wadis and as ore locked within or scattered from rocks by natural forces or human activity. He says mining in Wadi Qubqaba affects flood channels directly and indirectly. The chief impacts, he explains, are soil erosion from pits, trenches, and mining spoil, which alters the soil’s susceptibility to washout.
Eroded soil then settles in riverbeds and wadis, raising the bed and reducing a channel’s capacity, so water spills over more easily. Mining also strips vegetation, disturbs the ground, clogs drainage channels, and raises the risk of more intense floods, with attendant environmental, social, and economic harms that threaten neighbouring communities, their crops, and property, and may spark conflict. Whether mining increases flood risk depends on a flood’s speed, volume, and changing spatial patterns, he adds.
Researcher Mohamed Salah Abdelrahman told Atar the strip of land between the Red Sea and the Nile has been famed for mining since pharaonic times. Mining there ranges from surface to deep operations and has expanded massively; the area is Sudan’s top gold-producing zone and hosts the largest workforce and the greatest number of companies, whether producers or processors of waste.
Thousands of these ghurabil scar channels, amplifying runoff and potentially causing floods in places that never experienced them before.
researcher Mohamed Salah Abdelrahman
Abdelrahman explains that mining has driven significant topographic change through excavation within flood channels, the large-scale accumulation of tailings, intensive heavy-equipment traffic, and the trenches dug around company sites. He also highlights the widespread use of screening devices known as ghurabal in artisanal mining since 2015, which target surface gold in wadis and streambeds. Thousands of these ghurabals now scar the channels, intensifying runoff and triggering floods in areas that had never experienced them before.
Multiple reports indicate that increased digging and the piling of earth and waste have altered flood courses in Wadi Qubqaba. The previous regime relied on gold as a major budget item before the December uprising, and warring forces now depend on it amid the conflict.
Environmental researcher and writer Sari Naqd says the past decade has seen a dramatic surge in gold prospecting, most of it haphazard and producing hundreds of tonnes of soil mixed with chemical residues. Excavations left unfilled will inevitably reroute flood channels, he warns, while the regulatory bodies charged with monitoring these changes are failing to act.
Regulation and Responsibility
He cited international agreements Sudan has signed, including the Minamata Convention. “Unfortunately, no company has fully complied so far. There must also be routine monitoring of environment and safety activities at every site, with monthly reports and field visits by the ministry to assess change and ensure compliance with permits.”
The company, he added, has established several specialised firms to process artisanal mining waste contaminated with mercury, separating hazardous material so it will not contaminate surrounding areas.
The source explained that mines in Wadi Qubqaba come in two types: underground operations and open-pit excavation. Dynamite blasting at corporate sites is carried out in a scientific, studied manner; but since the Salvation Government era, and because of security fluidity, explosives have proliferated among artisanal miners.
Unfortunately, no company has fully complied so far.
source at Sudanese Company for Mineral Resources
He cited international agreements Sudan has signed, including the Minamata Convention. “Unfortunately, no company has fully complied so far. There must also be routine monitoring of environment and safety activities at every site, with monthly reports and field visits by the ministry to assess change and ensure compliance with permits.”
The company, he added, has established several specialised firms to process artisanal mining waste contaminated with mercury, separating hazardous material so it will not contaminate surrounding areas.
The source explained that mines in Wadi Qubqaba come in two types: underground operations and open-pit excavation. Dynamite blasting at corporate sites is carried out in a scientific, studied manner; but since the Salvation Government era, and because of security fluidity, explosives have proliferated among artisanal miners.
Photos of artisanal mining activities and company mines in Wadi Qubqaba
A source told Atar that the recent floods in Abu Hamad and surrounding areas occurred well away from the major company sites and blamed the deluge on artisanal mining activities.
“GIS analysis shows the Manob site, for example, sits at higher elevation, and rainwater runs north from it toward the Egyptian border,” the source said.
He added that the many pits dug by artisanal miners in Wadi Qubqaba and around Abu Hamad, combined with heavier rains, trigger land collapses that alter flood channels.
Mohammed al-Mahdi, an artisanal miner in Qubqaba, said miners range from those using rudimentary small machines to crews operating large, modern equipment for digging and prospecting. Many work inside or adjacent to company concessions but lack the technical know-how for formal exploration, which is a complex scientific process; instead, they rely on company findings and frameworks.
There are no regulations or environmental safeguards within the traditional mining sector, he said, noting that the Sudanese Company for Mineral Resources simply collects yields and taxes at the Abu Hamad gate. Mohammed added that in the rainy season, large pits can fill with water and sometimes hold close to 1,000 miners.
The data and eyewitness accounts show that mining in Qubqaba is not just an economic activity but a pressing environmental and social crisis that requires immediate intervention. Climate change and rising rainfall compound the problem, making it essential to adopt robust policies to protect local communities and ensure sustainable resource use.
Accusations against artisanal miners
A source told Atar that the recent floods in Abu Hamad and surrounding areas occurred well away from the major company sites and blamed the deluge on artisanal mining activities.
“GIS analysis shows the Manob site, for example, sits at higher elevation, and rainwater runs north from it toward the Egyptian border,” the source said.
He added that the many pits dug by artisanal miners in Wadi Qubqaba and around Abu Hamad, combined with heavier rains, trigger land collapses that alter flood channels.
Mohammed al-Mahdi, an artisanal miner in Qubqaba, said miners range from those using rudimentary small machines to crews operating large, modern equipment for digging and prospecting. Many work inside or adjacent to company concessions but lack the technical know-how for formal exploration, which is a complex scientific process; instead, they rely on company findings and frameworks.
There are no regulations or environmental safeguards within the traditional mining sector, he said, noting that the Sudanese Company for Mineral Resources simply collects yields and taxes at the Abu Hamad gate. Mohammed added that in the rainy season, large pits can fill with water and sometimes hold close to 1,000 miners.
The data and eyewitness accounts show that mining in Qubqaba is not just an economic activity but a pressing environmental and social crisis that requires immediate intervention. Climate change and rising rainfall compound the problem, making it essential to adopt robust policies to protect local communities and ensure sustainable resource use.
