A young worker supporting his siblings was among the reported dead. Sudan’s military leader reportedly ordered an investigation into the attack near the Egyptian border.
An October 10 air strike at a gold-mining site near Jabal Al-Aigdat in Sudan’s Red Sea region killed at least 72 miners, Al Jazeera said in an October 25 account drawing on witnesses and relatives. The account attributed the strike to Egypt’s military; Egyptian responsibility has not been independently confirmed.
Sudan’s civil war, which began in 2023 between the military and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, has damaged the economy. Thousands of people without another source of income have turned to artisanal mining—small-scale gold extraction, often using basic tools—in the country’s north.
Among those killed was Altayeb Alhadi, who had lost both parents as a child. At 14, he travelled hundreds of kilometres north from Galli village to earn money to feed his siblings and keep them in school. He initially worked in transport and other jobs before joining miners searching for gold.
A fellow miner, speaking anonymously, said he had separated from Altayeb less than half an hour before hearing bombardment. He described people fleeing in different directions as several attacks took place within minutes. The miners tried to move Altayeb to safety, but he died within hours.
Altayeb worked with about 15 young men and children who broke rocks with basic tools and took the material to nearby mills for processing. They shared the proceeds, but could dig for two or three weeks before finding a gram of gold or less, his former colleague said. Altayeb’s siblings are living with extended family following his death.
The joint statement estimates that 41% of Sudan’s population faces acute food insecurity, including five million at emergency levels, and calls for safe, unrestricted aid access.
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Findings from an inquiry announced in June into a similar incident have not been made public. Sudan’s military leader, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, reportedly ordered a fact-finding committee involving prosecutors, judicial representatives and security agencies to investigate the October attack.
The UK government has imposed travel bans and asset freezes on commanders from both sides of Sudan’s war whom it suspects of sexual violence during the siege of El Fasher.
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An official blamed the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces for strikes on five power stations, while residents described risks to refrigerated medicine, food stocks and efforts to resume farming.
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