Airstrikes kill dozens of gold miners on Egypt-Sudan border, rights group says

What the report says

A Sudanese rights group says airstrikes hit a gold mine on the Sudan-Egypt border on Saturday, killing at least 72 workers. France 24, citing AFP reporting, said the Emergency Lawyers organisation blamed Egypt’s air force for the attack, while Egypt had not issued an official comment and AFP could not independently verify the claim.

According to the article, the strike targeted the Jabal al-Uqaydat mining area, a remote and mountainous site near the disputed Halayeb triangle. Two survivors told AFP that jets appeared overhead and struck repeatedly, sending people fleeing into the hills and leaving bodies on the ground. The rights group said verification of the toll was still under way and that more victims may be trapped under rubble.

France 24 noted that this was the second reported attack on the site this year. In June, airstrikes reportedly killed 23 workers there, and the Egyptian army later said it had carried out a large-scale operation against illegal gold mining inside Egyptian territory. The border region remains contested and has long been used for mining, smuggling and movement across the frontier.

The report also placed the episode in the wider context of Sudan’s war, which has pushed many people into informal gold mining. It said the conflict has deepened the humanitarian crisis and intensified competition over mineral-rich areas along the border.