Airstrikes on gold mine kill 72 workers on Sudan-Egypt border

At least 72 workers were killed when airstrikes hit a gold mine on the border between Sudan and Egypt, a Sudanese rights group said, as survivors described running up the mountains in terror while bodies lay on the ground behind them.

The Emergency Lawyers, a group that documents atrocities in Sudan’s war, blamed the Egyptian air force for Saturday’s attack on the informal mining site at Jabal al-Uqaydat, Dawn reported, citing AFP.

“Many people were killed”

“A jet appeared overhead at around 8am on Saturday and struck five times, many people were killed,” miner Abdelaziz Youssef said. “We ran up the mountain terrified of another strike.”

Another survivor, Sharaf Ali, said thousands of people were working at the remote site when it was hit. “After the airstrike people scattered, some people came to Al-Ansary market, others went in the other direction, that’s why no one knows how many exactly were killed,” he said.

Both men said they saw bodies as they fled, with many more feared trapped under rubble, hours away from any town.

A second deadly attack

• This attack: “the deaths of 72 civilian miners, according to preliminary information”, the Emergency Lawyers said, while work to verify the toll continues
• June: airstrikes, reportedly by Egypt, killed 23 workers at the same site
• Egypt’s account: the Egyptian army did not claim the strikes. In June it said it had carried out a “large-scale operation” against illegal gold mining “within Egyptian territory”, detaining 223 people, including 136 foreigners, and announced a campaign against “illegal gold mining and arms smuggling” in the area

The rights group said the attack took place inside Sudanese territory, and accused Egypt of seeking to “expand and assert control over Sudan’s natural resources”.

A disputed border

The border between the two countries is disputed, with both claiming the resource-rich Halayeb triangle. The rugged, mineral-rich mountains stretch for hundreds of kilometres along the frontier, and the porous border east of the Nile has long been a route for gold, illicit trade and human trafficking, which Egypt has tried to stem, including through mass deportations.

Egypt is a key ally of Sudan’s army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, which is at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Cairo regards the war on its 1,200-kilometre southern border as a major threat to its security.

War pushes people into the mines

Sudan’s war, which began in April 2023, has killed more than 200,000 people and caused a deep humanitarian crisis. The collapse of normal work has pushed many Sudanese into dangerous informal gold mining, an industry that also helps fund both sides of the war.

Why it matters

The dead were poor labourers digging for gold to survive a war that has destroyed their country’s economy. Strikes on civilian workers, whoever carries them out, add to the suffering of a population already living through a deep humanitarian crisis, and risk dragging a neighbour deeper into Sudan’s conflict.

This article draws on reporting by Dawn and AFP.