CAIRO: Sudanese rights group The Emergency Lawyers on Sunday reported that airstrikes killed 72 workers at a gold mine on the Sudan-Egypt border a day earlier, accusing Egypt's air force of the attack.
"The attack carried out by Egyptian military aircraft" 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 group, which documents atrocities in Sudan.
It wasn't immediately clear who was behind the strike. The network, however, said the miners were repeatedly warned by Egyptian authorities to evacuate the area, which is reportedly part of Egypt.
Gold has played a central part in the war in Sudan, with the insurgent paramilitary Rapid Support Forces smuggling out thousands of tons of gold from the Darfur and Kordofan regions to fund themselves.
Abdel-Aziz Yousef, a survivor, told The Associated Press that an unknown aircraft struck an artisanal gold mine in a mountainous area Saturday morning.
He said that many people were killed or wounded, and others fled the area for fear of further strikes.
The medical group said the death toll is likely to increase given that some of the wounded have suffered from serious injuries and limited access to healthcare facilities.
In June, Egyptian security forces detained hundreds of people, including foreigners, on the border with Sudan, accusing them of illegal gold mining and smuggling.
More than 50% of gold mined in Sudan was smuggled out of the country, according to a U.N. Panel of Experts Report in 2024.