At least 72 Sudanese artisanal miners killed in strike, rights monitor says

An aerial bombardment in northern Sudan has claimed the lives of at least 72 artisanal miners, according to the legal and human rights monitoring group Emergency Lawyers. The organization reported the casualty figure on Sunday, noting that the strike took place a day earlier and represented the second such deadly occurrence in the area in recent months.

Emergency Lawyers attributed responsibility for the cross-border attack to Egypt's air force, asserting that such an operation constitutes a breach of international law. The Egyptian armed forces have offered no statement regarding the incident, and the nation's foreign ministry did not immediately reply to requests seeking comment. Independent verification of the claims regarding who carried out the raid was not immediately possible.

Photographs and video recordings distributed across social platforms and by regional monitors depicted multiple corpses scattered amid debris, while other victims were wrapped in burial cloths. Surviving laborers at the site offered accounts describing the moment an aerial assault hit the mining location.

The northern territories of Sudan have experienced a significant surge in informal mining operations and makeshift gold-panning sites. With the wider national war wiping out traditional livelihoods, gold has evolved into a vital revenue stream for the competing sides in the conflict. Industry observers and regional specialists point out that substantial quantities of the precious metal extracted from these northern deposits are routinely illicitly transported across the border into Egypt.

Sudan remains gripped by heavy fighting between the national military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. As the conflict drags on, incidents resulting in widespread civilian deaths have grown increasingly frequent, fueled heavily by the deployment of unmanned combat aerial vehicles.

In a separate episode just a day prior to the mining attack, an unmanned drone targeted a camp sheltering displaced civilians within an army-held sector of Sudan's Blue Nile state. That strike resulted in the deaths of approximately 31 people, according to reports provided by the United Nations.