Dozens of gold prospectors killed in strikes on Egypt-Sudan border, rights group says

Dozens of gold prospectors killed in strikes on Egypt-Sudan border, rights group says

At least 72 civilians who were searching for gold in a border area of Sudan have been killed in air strikes, according to a regional rights group.

Emergency Lawyers, based in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, said jets struck the so-called artisanal miners at popular gold mining sites in Sudan’s River Nile state on Saturday.

So far, neither the Egyptian government nor the de facto Sudanese authorities have commented.

Cairo has previously been accused of carrying out deadly strikes on gold prospectors as part of a crackdown on illegal activity along its southern border.

Emergency Lawyers referred to those earlier alleged attacks and said they showed not only a breach of Sudan’s sovereign territory but also the government’s inability to control the area.

"The deliberate targeting of unarmed civilians violates international humanitarian law and the right to life," it said in a statement on Sunday. "These acts may constitute war crimes."

It said its death toll was still provisional and could increase.

Witnesses said the attack started at about 06:00 local time (04:00 GMT), with aircraft firing more than five missiles directly at the miners’ camps, destroying them and excavation pits with people still inside, the newspaper wrote.

The Sudan Tribune reported claims in June that Egyptian forces had used drones and artillery to hit artisanal mining sites in the same area, killing several people, after sporadic incidents in which Egyptian border guards burned equipment, torched temporary shelters, and fired live ammunition to disperse mine workers.

Days later, Egypt’s border agency announced that it and the military had launched a broad security campaign along the border to stop illegal migration, drug smuggling and illegal mining.

At the same time, Sudan’s de facto leader announced an investigation into the alleged strikes, which were said to have killed dozens.

Gold is at the center of the border tensions.

Sudan’s continuing civil war has driven a rise in artisanal mining - an often dangerous practice carried out by civilians using basic tools and without official permission - especially in remote areas near its borders.

Gold-rich areas such as those in River Nile state are located along porous borders in terrain long linked to cross-border smuggling routes, with artisanally mined gold potentially feeding into those channels.

Egypt’s border force said in June that it had seized 86 tonnes of gold ore along with amateur prospecting equipment.

Artisanal mining has also reportedly continued in Sudan’s conflict zones, and smuggled gold may provide income for armed insurgent groups.

This has raised concerns that illicit Sudanese gold could undermine the legitimate Egyptian gold market.