Dozens killed in air strikes at Sudan-Egypt border gold mine as toll rises
A Sudanese rights group says at least 72 workers were killed in air strikes on a gold mine on the Sudan-Egypt border, in an attack that survivors described as chaotic and repeated. The site, identified as Jabal al-Uqaydat, is in a remote and disputed border area where informal mining has drawn workers to a resource-rich but insecure region. The group accused Egypt's air force of carrying out the strikes, while Egypt had not issued a comment in the supplied material.
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The Emergency Lawyers organisation said the attack took place on Saturday and that preliminary information pointed to the deaths of 72 civilian miners. Survivors said a jet appeared overhead around 8:00 am local time and struck several times, sending people fleeing into the surrounding mountains. One survivor said there were thousands of people working at the site, making it difficult to know how many were killed or injured.
The strike is the second reported attack this year on the same mining site. According to the supplied material, earlier air strikes in June killed 23 workers at Jabal al-Uqaydat, and the Egyptian army later said it had carried out a large-scale operation against illegal gold mining within its borders. The latest allegations have not been independently verified, and the casualty toll remains provisional as efforts to document the dead and missing continue.
The incident matters because the border area between Sudan and Egypt is disputed, including the resource-rich Halayeb triangle, and has long been tied to security and sovereignty concerns. It also comes during Sudan's civil war, which has pushed more civilians into artisanal mining in remote areas where state control is weak. In that context, attacks on mining camps carry both humanitarian and geopolitical weight, especially when they involve allegations against a neighbouring state's military.
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The supplied material also says the Egyptian border agency and military launched a security campaign along the frontier days after the June incident, aimed at stopping illegal migration, drug smuggling and illegal mining. That background adds to the sensitivity of any new strike in the same area, particularly where armed conflict, border enforcement and informal mining overlap. The rights group said the latest attack destroyed camps and excavation pits, and survivors reported seeing bodies on the ground as they fled.
What remains unclear is who carried out the strike, whether the death toll will rise, and whether any official investigation will be announced. The figures cited by the rights group are still being verified, and no official response from the authorities named in the report was included in the supplied material. The next developments to watch are any confirmation from Egypt or Sudan, and whether further details emerge about the victims and the location of the attack.
At least 72 civilians prospecting for gold have been killed in air strikes in Sudan's River Nile state near the border with Egypt, according to a regional rights group. Emergency Lawyers said jets hit artisanal mining camps on Saturday at popular gold sites in the border region. The group said the attack targeted unarmed civilians and could amount to war crimes.
Emergency Lawyers, which is based in Khartoum, said the death toll was provisional and could rise. It said the strikes began around 06:00 local time, with aircraft firing more than five missiles directly at miners' camps. The group said the blasts destroyed the camps and excavation pits with people still inside.
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Neither the Egyptian government nor the de facto Sudanese authorities had commented by the time of the report. The rights group said the attack was not an isolated incident and referred to previous alleged strikes on similar mining sites in the same region. It said earlier attacks had already shown a lack of control over the area and amounted to a violation of Sudan's sovereign territory.
The Paris-based Sudan Tribune also reported claims that the death toll could be higher, citing a survivor who said many more people had been injured. The incident comes against the backdrop of Sudan's civil war, which has driven more civilians into artisanal mining in remote border areas. Artisanal mining is typically carried out with rudimentary tools and without official permission, making workers vulnerable in areas where state authority is weak.
Gold-rich parts of River Nile state lie along porous borders and have long been linked to security concerns, including efforts to curb illegal mining and other cross-border activity. The report also recalled earlier allegations that Egyptian forces had used drones and artillery against artisanal mining sites in the same region in June, killing several people. It said those claims followed sporadic incidents in which border guards allegedly burned equipment, torched temporary shelters and fired live ammunition to disperse mine workers.
Days later, Egypt's border agency said it and the military had begun a sweeping security campaign along the border to stop illegal migration, drug smuggling and illegal mining. What remains unclear is the full scale of the casualties and who carried out the strikes. The rights group said its figures were still being verified, and no official response had been given by the authorities mentioned in the report.
The next developments to watch are whether either side confirms the attack, whether the death toll rises, and whether any investigation is announced.
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