AIR STRIKE KILLS 72 GOLD MINERS ON SUDAN-EGYPT BORDER

A Sudanese rights group, Emergency Lawyers, said air strikes killed at least 72 civilians prospecting for gold at a mining site in Sudan's River Nile state on Saturday. The group, based in Khartoum, accused Egypt's air force of carrying out the strikes, and said the toll was based on preliminary information with efforts to verify casualties still under way. Eyewitnesses said the attack began at around 6am local time, with aircraft firing more than five missiles directly at miners' camps, destroying excavation pits with people still inside, according to one newspaper report. The Paris-based Sudan Tribune reported that the death toll could be far higher than the figure given by Emergency Lawyers, citing a survivor who said many more people had been injured. Neither the Egyptian government nor Sudan's de facto authorities had commented at the time of reporting.

Emergency Lawyers said the strikes amounted to a violation of Sudan's sovereign territory and demonstrated the government's lack of control over the region, adding that "the deliberate targeting of unarmed civilians violates international humanitarian law and the right to life" and that the acts "may constitute war crimes". The group noted earlier claims, reported by the Sudan Tribune in June, that Egyptian forces had used drones and artillery against mining sites in the same area, killing several people, following incidents in which Egyptian border guards were said to have burned equipment and fired live ammunition to disperse workers. Gold mining in the border region has increased as Sudan's civil war has pushed civilians towards artisanal mining, often conducted with rudimentary tools and without official permission.

Egypt's border agency announced days after the June claims that it and the military had begun a security campaign along the border aimed at illegal migration, drug smuggling and illegal mining. Sudan's de facto leader separately announced an investigation into the earlier alleged strikes, which were said to have killed dozens. Emergency Lawyers said its latest death toll from Saturday's attack remained provisional and could rise further.