A Sudanese rights group says airstrikes on a remote gold-mining site near the Egyptian border killed 72 civilian miners. Emergency Lawyers described the figure as preliminary and said efforts to document and verify the toll were continuing.
Casualty toll remains uncertain
The strike hit Jabal al-Uqaydat, an informal mining area in a remote mountainous region. Two survivors described repeated attacks and miners fleeing in different directions. One said an aircraft struck five times; another said thousands of people had been working at the site, complicating efforts to determine how many were killed or remain missing.
Emergency Lawyers accused Egypt’s air force of carrying out the attack and said it occurred inside Sudanese territory. The group characterized the incident as a violation of Sudan’s sovereignty. The location lies close to a disputed border region claimed by both countries.
Responsibility not independently established
Egyptian authorities had not publicly commented on the latest strike in the initial accounts. During a separate operation in June, Egypt’s military said it had acted against illegal gold mining inside Egyptian territory. That earlier position does not establish who carried out Saturday’s airstrikes.
Sudan’s war, which began in April 2023, has driven many people toward informal mining as livelihoods collapse. The remote terrain and conflicting claims make independent casualty verification difficult. The 72-death figure should be treated as a preliminary estimate from the rights group, not a confirmed final toll.
