Dozens of gold miners were killed in an air strike in northern Sudan at the weekend, near the border with Egypt, watchdogs said.
Emergency Lawyers, a human rights monitor, the civilian-led Somoud alliance and the Sudan Doctors’ Network all reported the strike and accused the military-aligned government in Sudan of not doing enough to protect its people and the country’s territorial integrity.
“We reject the targeting of civilians and putting their lives at risk, which cannot be justified on security grounds,” Somoud said.
“The leadership of the relevant authorities appointed by the armed forces bear the responsibility for what happens in areas under their control.”
Sudan’s military-led Sovereign Council said the air strike took place in the border region with Egypt.
“The leadership in the two brotherly nations have been in contact since immediately after the incident took place to guarantee the protection of lives and safeguarding relations between the two peoples, find out the circumstances of the incident and give public opinion ownership of the facts,” claimed the council.
Egypt’s military issued a statement late on Monday evening saying its troops and police were continuing to counter “illegal” gold prospecting in the country’s eastern desert. It said it had dropped flyers on what it called criminal elements, warning them they must stop “so that full sovereignty is safeguarded inside the Egyptian state’s borders”.
“The Egyptian armed forces emphasises the depth of bonds between the Egyptian and Sudanese nations on the political and popular levels. The peaceful coexistence that millions of Sudanese enjoy while on Egyptian territory is the best proof of that,” said the statement.
It warned both Egyptians and Sudanese against believing “rumours”.
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and the Sudanese Foreign Minister in the military-backed government, Mohieldin Salem, also spoke on the phone on Monday evening, according to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.
It said the pair “emphasised the mutual respect that binds the two nations, including respect for each other’s sovereignty and the safety and integrity of their territories and borders”.
Images and videos shared online, which The National was unable to verify, purport to show the aftermath of the air strike, with bodies strewn in rubble, others wrapped in green sheets and angry survivors, mostly men in their 20s or 30s.
There has been an influx of gold prospectors in northern Sudan in recent years as the civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has hit the economy hard, driving hundreds of thousands to seek alternative sources of income.
Egypt’s military said in June it was engaged in a large-scale operation in the south of the country to tackle gangs involved in drug and arms trafficking, as well as illegal gold prospecting. It said 87 Egyptians and 136 foreigners had been arrested.
Gold production in Sudan has for years been a murky business, attracting adventurers, smugglers and foreign interests seeking quick profit. In several ways, the current gold rush is a by-product of most of the country’s oilfields being lost when South Sudan seceded in 2011.
The civil war that erupted in April 2023 has intensified the scramble for gold. Some estimates put the number of artisanal miners involved at about two million.
Official figures place government revenue from gold exports at about $2 billion, but experts say smuggling and local use of gold outside official channels account for far more.
In 2025, for example, Sudan’s gold production was about 70 tonnes, but only 20 tonnes were exported formally, with the remainder smuggled out of the country or treated locally in primitive refineries.
Al Shafie Ahmed contributed to this report from Kampala, Uganda