Rights activists report deaths of 72 gold miners on Sudan-Egypt border — Deutsche Welle
At least 72 workers at artisanal gold mines were killed in airstrikes in a disputed area near the Sudan-Egypt border. Sudanese human rights organization Emergency Lawyers reported this, Deutsche Welle reports.
According to the rights activists, the strike was carried out on Saturday in a mountainous, hard-to-reach area south of the Halaib Triangle, east of the Nile. The organization said the area lies within Sudan and accused the Egyptian Air Force of carrying out the attack.
The death toll may rise
The Sudanese Doctors Network said the death toll could increase due to the severity of the injuries and difficult access to medical care and basic services in the area.
One survivor told AFP that thousands of people were working at the mining site when the strike occurred. After the attack, people scattered: some headed to the Al-Ansari gold market, while others went in another direction, making it impossible to establish the exact death toll so far.
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Disputed territory and illegal mining
The Halaib Triangle, claimed by both Sudan and Egypt, is known for gold mining and trade. Illegal trafficking in other goods and human trafficking are also reported in the region. Independently verifying the circumstances of the airstrikes is difficult because of the remoteness of the site.
Egypt has not officially commented on reports of the strike. Earlier, Cairo acknowledged conducting a large-scale operation against illegal gold mining on its territory. In June, after airstrikes on mines in the same border area, Egyptian security forces conducted a large-scale operation and detained hundreds of people, including foreigners, on suspicion of illegal mining and smuggling.
The war in Sudan between the military junta led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has been ongoing for three and a half years. According to Deutsche Welle, the conflict has claimed more than 200,000 lives and caused a severe humanitarian crisis.
