At least 72 Sudanese miners killed in air strike: Rights monitor

At least 72 Sudanese miners killed in air strike on disputed border

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At least 72 workers were killed in air strikes on a gold mine on the Sudan-Egypt border, a Sudanese rights group said on Sunday, after survivors described scenes of chaos in the mountainous region. The Emergency Lawyers rights organisation accused the Egyptian air force of carrying out the attack. AFP could not independently confirm the account and Egypt has issued no official comment. The attack on Saturday was the second this year on Jabal al-Uqaydat, after air strikes, reportedly by Egypt, killed 23 workers in the informal gold mining site in June. The Egyptian army did not claim the strikes but said at the time that it had conducted a "large-scale operation" against illegal gold mining within its borders .

The border between Sudan and Egypt is disputed, with both countries claiming the resource-rich Halayeb triangle. Cairo is however a key ally of Sudan 's army, at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Read more At least 82 killed in gold mine collapse in remote area of Sudan, paramilitary RSF say The attack on Saturday "resulted in the deaths of 72 civilian miners, according to preliminary information, while efforts to document and verify the casualty toll are ongoing", said the Emergency Lawyers, which documents atrocities in Sudan's war.

Two survivors described to AFP their harrowing escape from the mine. Miner Abdelaziz Youssef said a jet appeared overhead at around 8am (0600 GMT) on Saturday and "struck five times, many people were killed". "We ran up the mountain terrified of another strike," he told AFP. Another survivor, Sharaf Ali, said there were thousands of people working at the remote site when it was hit. "After the air strike people scattered, some people came to Al-Ansary market, others went in the other direction, that's why no one knows how many exactly were killed," he said from the gold market, just south of the Halayeb triangle.

The reported attack on Saturday cannot be independently verified, and Egypt has issued no official comment. It was this year’s second attack on the mountainous border region of Jabal al-Uqaydat, a gold mining area. Similar strikes, also reportedly carried out by Egypt, killed 23 workers at the gold mining site in June. The Egyptian military said at the time that it had conducted a “large-scale operation” against illegal gold mining within its borders.

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