At least 114 people were killed in an airstrike on an artisanal goldmine in Sudan's North Valley near the Egyptian border, according to the Sudanese rights group Emergency Lawyers. The strike occurred on Saturday 10 October and has sparked anger in Sudan, with many accusing Egypt of being behind the attack.
The mine was crowded with young Sudanese trying to earn a living in a country whose economy has been shattered by three years of war. Ammar, a gold trader who responded to calls to help survivors, described the scene: "These are people who have just come here to earn a living, through their own hard work. Their families are scattered by the war and they send them what they earn. Sudan doesn't have jobs, so they go to the mountains and dig with their hands to live."
Rescue efforts and attribution
When Ammar arrived, he found chaos. Miners had abandoned their work, leaving green bags of excavated materials scattered, to rescue the injured. They made stretchers from blankets, loaded the wounded into pickup trucks, and began digging graves for the dead.
The miners immediately attributed the strike to Egypt. The Sudanese military later confirmed it had carried out operations to end "illegal goldmining in the eastern desert" but did not address the airstrike. Egypt reportedly struck the same site in June, killing at least 15 people, according to Sudanese media, and has carried out raids, arresting miners and confiscating equipment.
Egypt's position and local response
Egypt said it had distributed leaflets warning civilians to leave before launching the operation. Photos on social media appear to show a leaflet stating: "Surrender yourselves and your equipment. Your lives are more important than any equipment."
Mohamed Salah, director of Emergency Lawyers, said there were scuffles before the bombing between miners and Egyptian security forces trying to force them out of the area. "While Egyptian authorities have sought to curb illegal border trade for a long time, locals did not anticipate an escalation involving military aircraft," says Salah. He says most of the miners have dispersed since the attack but does not expect them to stay away. "The miners say they will return – artisanal goldmining in these border areas is the only source of income for them," he says.
Impact on miners and economy
Many miners come from conflict-hit parts of the country, such as the Darfur and Kordofan regions, and have slowly made their way to the Egyptian border. While Egypt has framed its operations as an attempt to curtail illegal mining, it has been a beneficiary of the informal mining sector, receiving an estimated 60% of the gold produced and smuggled from parts of northern Sudan that border Egypt.
Despite a three-year war between the Sudanese military and rebel paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, gold production has continued in areas controlled by both sides, with artisanal mines proliferating because of rising poverty. The mines rely on manual labour and expose workers to health risks from chemicals such as mercury and cyanide used to process the gold.
The human rights campaigner Hala al-Karib says the airstrike reveals the vulnerability of the prospectors. "They are blocked from any other means of livelihood with the collapse of the education system [and] the high rates of unemployment. What other options do they have to survive?" says Karib, who leads the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa network. "They are at the bottom of the chain because they are subject to the exploitation of big traders. So it is quite painful that on top of that they are exposed to this terror, being killed randomly. It's a crime and there is nothing to justify it."
