Arabic version: منظمة حقوقية تقول إن غارات جوية قتلت 72 من عمال مناجم الذهب
According to France 24, at least 72 workers were killed in airstrikes on an informal gold mine at Jabal al-Uqaydat on the Sudan-Egypt border on Saturday. The Sudanese Emergency Lawyers rights organisation accused Egypt’s air force of carrying out the attack. AFP could not independently verify the account, and Egypt had issued no official comment.
The group said the strikes killed 72 civilian miners based on preliminary information, while documentation and verification of the casualty toll continued. It said the attack took place within Sudanese territory. Two survivors told AFP that workers fled after a jet appeared over the remote mountainous site.
Miner Abdelaziz Youssef said the aircraft struck five times at about 8:00 am local time, killing many people. He said miners ran up the mountain fearing another strike. Another survivor, Sharaf Ali, said thousands of people had been working at the site and scattered in different directions afterward, making the exact toll unclear. Both said they saw bodies as they escaped, while more people were feared trapped under rubble far from urban centres.
The reported attack was the second this year at Jabal al-Uqaydat. Airstrikes reportedly carried out by Egypt killed 23 workers there in June. Egypt’s army did not claim those strikes, but said it had conducted a large-scale operation against illegal gold mining within its borders. The resource-rich Halayeb triangle is claimed by both Sudan and Egypt. The Emergency Lawyers said repeated attacks in mineral-rich border areas reflected a desire by Egyptian authorities to expand control over Sudan’s natural resources.
Sudan’s conflict, which began in April 2023, has killed more than 200,000 people and deepened a humanitarian crisis that has driven many people into dangerous gold mining, an industry that fuels both sides’ war efforts. Egypt backs Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and views the war along its 1,200-kilometre border with Sudan as a major security threat.
