At least 72 Sudanese miners killed in air strike, rights monitor says
At least 72 civilian miners were killed on Saturday in an air strike at a gold mine near the Sudan-Egypt border, according to the Sudanese rights group Emergency Lawyers. The Khartoum-based organisation accused Egyptian fighter jets of carrying out the raid in the northern Wadi area inside Sudanese territory. Egypt has issued no official comment, and the reported casualties cannot be independently verified.
The incident marks the second deadly aerial assault on the Jabal al-Uqaydat mining area this year, following strikes in June that killed 23 workers. At that time, the Egyptian military stated it had conducted operations within its own borders to counter illegal mining and arms smuggling, detaining 223 people. The mineral-rich border zone remains contested, with both nations claiming sovereignty over the Halaib Triangle.
The deadly raid underscores the hazards facing Sudanese civilians amid the ongoing war that erupted in April 2023 between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The conflict has claimed more than 200,000 lives and pushed many into unregulated mining. Although Egypt backs Sudan's army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, it considers the 1,200-kilometre border a major security threat and has long sought to stem illicit trade across the frontier.
Continue in the app — vote & join in ➔