Two Egyptian army officers, including a high-ranking border guard officer, were killed during Egypt's military crackdown on illegal gold mining along its southern border with Sudan, a military spokesperson said on Thursday, as the army announced a fourth phase of the campaign starting on Saturday.
The spokesperson said authorities had detained 151 Egyptians and 540 foreigners during the campaign — 691 people in all — Reuters reported. Military spokesman Colonel Ahmed Etman Ali gave the cumulative figures at a news conference, and Egyptian Streets reported that another 6,614 people had surrendered before operations began. All of the figures come from the military and have not been independently verified.
What the army says it found
The New Arab, which calls the campaign Southern Shield, reported that the army seized 34 firearms, 6,307 rounds of ammunition and 4,488 tents and makeshift shelters used for mining, and that the spokesman said 52 gatherings of armed groups had been identified inside Egypt. The spokesman also confirmed the use of armed drones, saying operations were based on precise intelligence and that no civilians were targeted. Phase one of the campaign began on June 14 west of Marsa Alam and Jabal Eiqat, and phase three ran from October 12 to 29.
Al-Shorouk and Ahram Online reported that the spokesman named the dead officers as Colonel Ahmed Samir, chief of staff of the Southern Region Border Guard, and Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Gouda, operations chief of a border guard battalion, and said they were killed in exchanges of fire. Reuters noted it was not immediately clear when the two officers were killed, and the spokesperson did not specify the timing of their deaths. The New Arab noted that a military funeral for an officer of a similar name was held on March 10, before the campaign began; whether that was the same officer is not clear.
What is solid
- Egypt's military announced the figures itself on Thursday: two officers killed, 691 people detained, and a fourth phase due to start on Saturday, Reuters reported.
- The campaign against illegal gold mining in the Eastern Desert began in June, with the first three phases complete, the military said.
- Egypt and Sudan are coordinating on border security and exchanging information, the military spokesperson said.
What is only claimed
- The Sudanese rights group Emergency Lawyers said in October that at least 72 artisanal miners were killed in an airstrike in northern Sudan near the Egyptian border and blamed the Egyptian Air Force — an allegation that has not been independently verified and that Egypt's military did not address at the time.
- The timing of the two officers' deaths is unexplained, and the nationalities and whereabouts of the 540 foreign detainees have not been disclosed.
Why gold, and why now
Artisanal gold mining has risen in northern Sudan since Sudan's civil war disrupted livelihoods, Reuters reported. Gold has become a key revenue source during the conflict, while experts and industry participants say much of it is smuggled into Egypt through a porous and disputed border area that includes the mineral-rich Halayeb and Shalateen regions. The military said the campaign is intended to strengthen state control over Egyptian territory and protect national resources.
What happens next is phase four, due to begin on Saturday, November 7. The open questions are what happens to the 540 foreign nationals the army says it is holding, whether Cairo explains when its two officers died, and whether the October airstrike allegation in northern Sudan is ever independently investigated.
Source: Reuters