A deadly strike in a contested border area
Air strikes hit a gold mining site at Jabal al-Uqaydat, in a remote, mountainous area along the border that Egypt and Sudan both claim, at first light on Saturday, 11 October, Al Jazeera reported, citing a Sudanese rights monitor.
Death toll estimates have varied. The Sudan-based rights group Emergency Lawyers said at least 72 civilians were killed, while the Sudan Doctors' Network initially reported 13 dead and 28 wounded, according to The National.
Survivors described chaos at the site. Sharaf Ali, who said "thousands of people" were working there when the strikes hit, told Arab News that people scattered in panic, making an exact death toll hard to establish. Another miner, Abdelaziz Youssef, said the site was "struck five times" and that "many people were killed".
Two accounts of where it happened
Sources in Cairo, speaking anonymously, confirmed to The National that Egypt carried out the strike, describing its target as illegal prospectors operating on Egyptian territory. "They had repeatedly been warned to leave the area but they never did," the sources said, the newspaper reported. Leaflets warning of "immediate targeting" had reportedly been dropped over the area beforehand.
Sudanese groups gave a different account of the location. Emergency Lawyers said the strike happened inside Sudanese territory, in rugged terrain within the Halayeb Triangle, a region claimed by both countries and known for its gold trade, according to Al Jazeera.
Emergency Lawyers said the repeated attacks on the gold- and mineral-rich border regions reflect a desire by Egyptian authorities to expand and assert control over Sudan's natural resources, according to Arab News.
Not the first such strike this year
Saturday's strike was the second of its kind in 2026, Arab News reported. A similar attack in June killed 23 workers at the same gold-mining region, after Sudan's army accused Egyptian forces of targeting miners near the border, The New Arab reported.
Egypt's military did not claim either strike. After the June attack, it said it had carried out a "large-scale operation" against illegal gold mining "within Egyptian territory" and had detained 223 people, including 136 foreign nationals, according to Arab News.
Civilians caught in a resource war
We reject the targeting of civilians and putting their lives at risk, which cannot be justified on security grounds. — Somood, Sudanese pro-democracy coalition
The Halayeb Triangle, a stretch of mountainous terrain running for hundreds of kilometres along the Red Sea coast, has drawn gold prospectors from across Sudan during the country's civil war, which has killed more than 200,000 people since April 2023, according to Arab News. Gold mined in the area helps fund both sides of that conflict, the newspaper reported.
Artisanal gold mining has boomed along Sudan's Red Sea Hills and the disputed border strip in recent years, drawing workers from across the country despite minimal safety oversight and, increasingly, the risk of military strikes, according to Al Jazeera.
Neither Egypt's nor Sudan's government had issued an official statement on Saturday's strike as of Monday, Al Jazeera reported.
A civil war that has spread to the border
The Halayeb Triangle dispute long predates Sudan's current civil war; both Cairo and Khartoum have claimed sovereignty over the territory for decades, and the area's mineral wealth has made it a recurring flashpoint even in calmer periods, according to Arab News.
This was not Egypt's first attempt to clear the area of prospectors. In the months before the June strike, miners told Sudan Tribune, as reported by The New Arab, that Egyptian border guards had burned mining equipment, torched shelters and fired live ammunition to force workers away. After that June attack, Amjad Farid, a political affairs adviser to Sudan's army chief, said Egyptian forces had targeted Sudanese miners near the border, resulting in fatalities, the outlet reported.
The border strikes have drawn concern beyond Sudan and Egypt. In June, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said "the horrific conflict has expanded and escalated, marked by a sharp increase in the use of drone warfare," according to The New Arab, though he was describing Sudan's civil war broadly rather than the border strikes specifically.
Frequently asked questions
Where did the strike happen?
The strike hit a gold mining site at Jabal al-Uqaydat, in rugged, mountainous terrain along the border Egypt and Sudan both claim. Sudanese rights groups say the location lies inside Sudan's Halayeb Triangle; sources in Cairo described the target as Egyptian territory.
How many people were killed?
Estimates vary by source. Emergency Lawyers said at least 72 civilians were killed. The Sudan Doctors' Network initially reported 13 dead and 28 wounded, and survivors told Arab News the toll was hard to pin down because people scattered in the mountainous terrain when the strikes hit, making a full count difficult to compile in the immediate aftermath.
Has Egypt confirmed carrying out the strike?
Not officially. Anonymous sources in Cairo confirmed the strike to The National, saying it targeted illegal gold prospectors who had been warned to leave and had leaflets warning of "immediate targeting" dropped over the area beforehand. Egypt's government and military had made no public statement on the incident as of the following Monday.
Has this happened before?
Yes. The New Arab reported that a similar strike in June 2026 killed 23 workers at the same gold-mining area, after which Egypt's military said it had conducted a large-scale operation against illegal mining within its territory and detained 223 people, including 136 foreign nationals, according to Arab News, but did not directly claim either strike.
