On October 10, 2026, aircraft struck a Sudanese artisanal gold-mining site at Jabal al-Uqaydat near the Egyptian frontier, killing between a dozen and more than 200 people according to differing accounts, in the second such attack this year after a June strike that killed at least 23.

Sudanese rights monitors accused Egypt, which neither confirmed nor denied the strike and instead announced a new phase of its campaign against illegal prospecting while urging respect for territorial integrity; Gen. al-Burhan ordered a fact-finding committee.

The incidents occur amid a surge in unofficial gold flows from Sudan to Egypt, Egyptian military support for Sudan’s army including reported drone operations, and a disputed border that both sides claim, raising questions about accountability for civilian deaths.

The aircraft arrived just before dawn on Saturday, October 10, as the camps at Jabal al-Uqaydat stirred to life. Thousands of Sudanese miners boiled tea, gathered tools and prepared to descend into the earth for another day of digging. Some were already below ground. Survivors say the planes struck at least five times, ripping through the makeshift shelters and collapsing the shafts on the men still inside. In a place where people come to pull fortunes from the rock, the rock became a grave.

By the time the dust settled in this barren corner of Red Sea state, near the Egyptian frontier, the dead numbered anywhere from a dozen to more than 200, depending on who was counting.

A Sudanese rights monitor, the Emergency Lawyers, put the preliminary toll at 72 and accused Egypt of carrying out the attack. Survivors put the number much higher, saying more than 15,000 workers fled into the surrounding caves and ridges. A Sudanese medical network reported a much lower count. No one has independently confirmed these figures, and Cairo has neither claimed nor denied the strike.

No one disputes that this was the second attack on the same mining field this year. Strikes there in........

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