Air strikes kill dozens of gold miners on Sudan-Egypt border
A Sudanese rights group says at least 72 people died at a remote mining site and blames Egypt's air force. Cairo has not commented.
Port Sudan — At least 72 people were killed on Saturday when air strikes hit artisanal gold miners in a disputed area on the border between Sudan and Egypt, a Sudanese rights group has said, according to Deutsche Welle, which cites the AFP and AP news agencies.
The group, Emergency Lawyers, said the strikes fell south of the Halayeb triangle, east of the Nile, in mountainous country that it says lies inside Sudan. It accused the Egyptian air force of carrying them out.
Egypt had not commented by the time of the report. The area is remote and the claim could not be independently verified.
Why the toll is uncertain
A survivor told AFP that thousands of people were working at the site when it was hit, and that those who lived scattered afterwards, some towards a nearby gold market. That, he said, is why nobody knows exactly how many died.
The Sudan Doctors Network warned that the number could rise because some of the wounded are badly hurt and medical care is hard to reach.
The second attack this year
It is the second such attack in 2026. In June, strikes on mining sites in the same border area were followed by a large Egyptian security operation in which hundreds of people, foreigners among them, were arrested on accusations of illegal mining and smuggling. Egypt has previously acknowledged a large-scale operation against illegal gold mining within its borders.
What lies behind it
Both countries claim the Halayeb triangle, which is known for mining, the gold trade and smuggling.
Sudan's war, now three and a half years old, sets the army of Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Egypt backs the army but treats the fighting on its border as a threat to its own security, and is worried about the number of people crossing.
Gold runs through the conflict. The Rapid Support Forces have paid for their operations partly by smuggling gold out of Darfur and Kordofan, and the think tank Chatham House estimates that as much as 60% of Sudan's unofficial gold exports end up in Egypt.
This report is based on reporting by Deutsche Welle, with AFP and AP, via AllAfrica.
