A wave of widespread anger and condemnation erupted in Sudanese political and popular circles following an aerial and ground attack that targeted artisanal gold mining sites in the North of the Valley area in Red Sea State, resulting in the deaths and injuries of dozens of miners at dawn on Tuesday last week.
The “Sahih Sudan” platform reported, citing eyewitnesses and local sources, that the Jebel Al-Eiqad mine, located inside Sudanese territory in the Jebeit locality, was subjected to two airstrikes carried out by two aircraft belonging to the Egyptian government at six o’clock in the morning on Tuesday. The attack led to the killing and wounding of dozens of workers at the site, while the survivors were forced to flee on foot for a distance of approximately 120 kilometers to the nearest water point at Souq Al-Ansari, one of the oldest mining markets in the country. The dead and wounded were transported to the market, while a number of those who fled remained on the road and had not arrived by the time the report was prepared.
According to the same reports, the Jebel Al-Eiqad strike coincided with a similar airstrike that targeted the Jebel Al-Aqaba mine in the same area. Confirmed details about the extent of losses there are not yet available due to communication outages and the closure of the road leading to the site following a ground operation. Testimonies from survivors indicated that the situation in Jebel Al-Aqaba was more tragic compared to Jebel Al-Eiqad, as the airstrikes were followed by a large-scale ground operation involving around 60 military vehicles under air cover, which began on Monday evening according to one survivor.
Miners stated that the area has been witnessing an ongoing dispute with the Egyptian side over mining rights. They pointed to a previous ground attack carried out by Egyptian infantry on the 19th of Ramadan last, which resulted in the killing of nine miners, followed by intense aerial reconnaissance that lasted a week before the latest strike. Sources noted that the “Joint Forces,” tasked with protecting the mine in exchange for collecting 10% of the miners’ production, withdrew from the site four hours before the strike occurred, which exacerbated the seriousness of the situation and increased the human losses.
Widespread Political Condemnation
On the political level, several Sudanese parties and alliances condemned the attack. A statement by the Sudanese Congress Party described what happened as evidence of the loss of the country’s sovereignty and the collapse of the “narrative of dignity,” without explicitly mentioning Egypt. In contrast, the Republican Party issued a sharper statement describing the incident as “the treacherous Egyptian aggression” and called for a national stance in response. The Sudan Founding Alliance “Tasis” condemned what it described as “the Egyptian attack,” considering it a violation of national sovereignty, and claimed in its statement that the attack was carried out in coordination with what it called “the army of the Islamic Movement.”
For its part, the Darfur Victims Advocacy Organization condemned what it described as the Egyptian air force bombing of Sudanese miners, holding the Egyptian army fully responsible. It described the incident as the third of its kind in a short period and called on the UN Security Council to intervene urgently to stop what it considered repeated aggression against civilians.
Official Silence from Both Sides
In contrast, the de facto authority in Sudan did not issue any official statement clarifying the circumstances of the incident or the fate of the victims, as the government of Red Sea State and the central security agencies have remained silent so far.
Similarly, the Egyptian government did not issue any official comment on the airstrikes or the alleged ground operation, despite the recurrence of testimonies and documented video clips that have spread widely on social media platforms.
This official silence from both sides is met with escalating anger among the miners and the families of the victims, who consider what happened a flagrant violation of Sudanese sovereignty and a direct targeting of unarmed civilians, amid the absence of any transparent investigation or legal accountability so far.
Observers, according to reports, went so far as to say that the Egyptian authorities are seeking to clear Sudanese artisanal mining areas of Sudanese people in preparation for full control over them — a claim that has not received any confirmation or official comment from the Egyptian side up to the time this report was prepared.
