Sudanese gold miners describe deadly airstrike that killed 72

Sudanese miners injured in a deadly airstrike along the border with Egypt have been describing how the incident unfolded. Seventy-two people are believed to have been killed in last week’s attack on Jabal al-Uqaydat, a sprawling gold-mining area in the mountains near the frontier. The region stretches across the border and includes territory claimed by both Sudan and Egypt. Rights group have blamed the strike on the Egyptian air force. "We were working, and then, around 8 in the morning, we prepared some tea, while an aircraft appeared overhead and began filming us, circling above about three times, on the fourth pass, it struck us," said Ali Mohamed Hamza, a miner injured in the air strike. Omar Mohie El Deen Abdullah was also injured in the attack: "The first strike caused an explosion right in the middle of the miners. There were nearly 300 people or more there at the time. By the grace of God, I only sustained an injury to one of my fingers, but I lost my brother, my cousin, and my maternal cousin, they all got killed." The region has become a magnet for informal miners as Sudan's war has wrecked livelihoods and driven thousands toward the gold trade. Gold remains one of Sudan's few functioning economic lifelines and a major source of revenue for both sides of the conflict. The area is also a key corridor for smuggling. Omar Abdullah is the father of victim Osman Omar: "Most of our work here is in agriculture, but the current farming season has largely failed, as a result, everyone has turned to mining to try and earn a living. A sack of flour here has reached 700,000 Sudanese pounds." Campaign against illegal mining Without directly addressing the allegations, Egypt's military said on Monday that armed forces and police were carrying out a campaign against illegal gold mining near the Sudanese border to "impose full sovereignty within the borders of the Egyptian state" and protect state resources. It said "warning flyers" had been dropped before the operation targeting what it described as "criminal elements" involved in illegal mining. It also urged people not to be swayed by "misleading rumours and foreign agendas" that could harm relations between Egypt and Sudan. Sudan's de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has ordered a probe into what he called a "painful incident in a border area between Sudan and Egypt." He also formed a fact-finding committee comprising prosecutors, judicial officials and security representatives "to investigate the circumstances of the incident" and "submit a report on the results", according to the Transitional Sovereignty Council, which he heads as army chief. His adviser for foreign affairs, Amjad Farid, described Saturday's attack as an "unjustified and unacceptable crime". In a post on X, he said there were many ways to enforce the law and address "border violations", but that "the use of airstrikes against civilians cannot be one of them." In a phone call with his Sudanese counterpart, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty stressed the "mutual respect that binds the two brotherly nations," including respect for each state's "territorial integrity and safety of its territory and borders." The attack is the second reported strike this year on Jabal al-Uqaydat. In June, airstrikes reportedly carried out by Egypt killed 23 workers at the same informal mine. At the time, the Egyptian military did not claim responsibility but said it had conducted a "large-scale operation" against illegal gold mining within its borders.