Deadly Air Strike on Sudan Gold Mine Exposes Egypt Border Insecurity

An alleged air strike on a gold mining site in northern Sudan has resulted in the deaths of at least 72 workers, according to a rights group. This incident underscores the significant security vacuum along Sudan’s increasingly lawless border with Egypt. The Khartoum-based rights group, Emergency Lawyers, has accused the Egyptian military of targeting civilian miners in the North Wadi area of Jabal al-Uqaydat, a mountainous region situated on the border between Sudan and Egypt. Egypt has not yet issued a comment on the incident. Images purportedly from the site, shared by rights monitors, depicted chaotic scenes with bodies wrapped in funeral shrouds.

A Troubled Border

The border region between Sudan and Egypt has a long-standing history of tensions that persist to this day. In 1899, the British and Egyptian governments established the 22nd parallel north as the dividing boundary between Sudan and Egypt on official maps. However, the lack of physical border demarcation along this line, combined with the area’s gold wealth, has led to disputes and lawlessness.

Abdul Kareem Al-Almin Ahmed, a specialist in Egypt-Sudan border affairs, stated that the Sudanese territorial borders have long suffered from historical neglect, a situation that continues. “The presence of the Egyptian Border Guard forces near the region, amid a complete lack of Sudanese military or administrative presence, has left the Sudanese highly vulnerable to Egyptian violations and encroachment,” he told Al Jazeera. He added, “What is required now from the Sudanese state – if it exists – is to elevate and escalate this issue to the United Nations as an encroachment on Sudanese territory. This must be followed by the immediate physical demarcation of border points in this region and along the entire border strip, in addition to establishing border observation posts along the entirety of the borders.”

In June, another artisan gold mine in the Jabal al-Uqaydat region was attacked by drones and artillery, resulting in several fatalities. The Egyptian army reported conducting an operation “within Egyptian territory” and detaining 223 individuals. Egyptian security forces continue to carry out sweeps along the border to combat what they describe as illegal migration, drug smuggling, and illegal mining.

Historical Border Disputes

Egypt and Sudan share a lengthy history of border tensions dating back to the colonial era, extending beyond the Jabal al-Uqaydat area. The Halaib Triangle, a 20,580 sq km territory on the Red Sea coast, has been a point of contention between Egypt and Sudan for over a century. The dispute originates from conflicting colonial-era maps. An 1899 agreement between Britain and Egypt concerning Sudan and parts of Libya placed the triangle within Egyptian political boundaries. However, a 1902 British administrative decree granted control to Khartoum due to the area’s proximity to the Sudanese capital. The triangle, inhabited by the Bisharin tribe, is known for its fertile lands and rich mineral deposits, including uranium, granite, copper, and gold. Following military clashes on the border in the 1990s, Sudanese forces withdrew from the area in 2000, and Cairo has maintained effective control since.

Security and Sovereignty

The latest unrest follows the outbreak of the civil war in Sudan in April 2023, which pits the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), allegedly supported by Egypt, against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The conflict has devastated the country and crippled its economy. Widespread poverty has compelled many to resort to dangerous gold mining methods, including unregulated operations on the border. The collapse of central authority in Sudan has also facilitated the spread of lawlessness in the borderlands. Sudan’s gold has been a crucial source of funding for both warring factions, though there is no indication that revenue from the border region’s gold mines benefits either party.

Osama Ahmed Eidrous, a professor of strategic and security studies, told Al Jazeera that foreign powers have prolonged the conflict in Sudan. “What is happening in Sudan is not a civil war; despite the presence of the Rapid Support Forces as one of the fighting parties in this war, this war is a war of external aggression within a large regional project,” Eidrous stated. “Everything that is happening in Sudan now in terms of effects on the Sudanese citizen, the weakness of the central government and the difficulty of controlling the borders, all these things are caused by this ongoing war in Sudan.” He further emphasized that the miners posed no threat to neighboring countries like Egypt and were not involved in the war. “We are talking about miners working in gold mining and we have not heard that there was an armed clash, or that they were carrying weapons, or that they were fighting the Egyptian government or the Sudanese government,” he said. “They are Sudanese citizen miners who were suddenly attacked by the Egyptian aviation and struck for the second time, killing 85 of them.”