Arabic version: منظمة حقوقية تتحدث عن غارات قاتلة استهدفت منقّبي الذهب في السودان

According to BBC News, at least 72 civilians prospecting for gold in a border region of Sudan were killed in air strikes, according to Emergency Lawyers, a rights group based in Khartoum. The group said jets targeted artisanal miners at popular gold-mining sites on Saturday.

Emergency Lawyers said its death toll was provisional and could rise. It said the alleged targeting of unarmed civilians violated international humanitarian law and the right to life, adding that the acts could constitute war crimes. Neither the Egyptian government nor Sudan’s de facto authorities had commented.

The Paris-based Sudan Tribune, citing a survivor, reported that the number of dead could be far higher and that many more people were injured. Eyewitnesses told the newspaper that the attack began at about 06:00 local time, or 04:00 GMT, and that aircraft fired more than five missiles at miners’ camps, destroying the camps and excavation pits with people still inside.

Gold is central to tensions along the border. Sudan’s civil war has led to a rise in artisanal mining, often carried out by civilians using rudimentary tools without official permission in remote border areas. Egypt’s border agency said in June that it and the military had begun a security campaign targeting illegal migration, drug smuggling and illegal mining, and said it had seized 86 tonnes of gold ore and prospecting equipment.