Satellite imagery analysed by AFP and cross-checked with survivors has pinpointed the site of a deadly strike on Sudanese gold miners in early October to the Halayeb Triangle — a large, mineral-rich mountainous region claimed by both Egypt and Sudan but controlled by Egypt.

Source: AFP via The Voice

The exact location of the October 10 strike had been disputed, with survivors earlier saying they had been on the Sudanese side of the border. The strike killed at least 72 people, according to a conservative estimate from a local NGO, the Sudanese rights group Emergency Lawyers, which has blamed the strike on Egypt — an attribution Egypt has not acknowledged.

What the satellite images show

Planet Labs images taken on October 7 and October 13, provided on October 21 and analysed by AFP, show numerous excavation sites, earthworks, tracks carved into steep mountainsides and small encampments spread over several kilometres at Jabal al-Uqaydat. Around a dozen red objects, between two and 15 metres long, are visible at the site identified by AFP; tarpaulins of the same colour and similar size appear in videos and photographs of the attack published by Sudanese media, and witnesses said miners used them as makeshift tents to shelter from the sun.

Three survivors contacted by AFP confirmed the location of the site and said other parts of the sprawling mining area had also been hit. The Sudanese media outlet Ayin Network also identified the site as one of the targets of the strikes. The small-scale mine lies within a 176-square-kilometre concession awarded by the Egyptian government to a state-owned gold exploration and mining company.

Observers say hundreds of miners, many of them children, remain missing in the mountains, according to AFP. A strike in the same area in June, also attributed to Egypt, killed 23 Sudanese miners; Cairo did not acknowledge responsibility at the time but announced a “large-scale operation” against illegal gold mining within its borders.

A war-fuelled gold rush

In Sudan, where the UN says nearly 20 million people now face acute food insecurity, many young men have joined a dangerous gold rush, working mainly in small-scale mines where accidents are common, AFP reported. The multi-billion-dollar gold industry fuels both sides of Sudan's civil war, which is estimated to have killed more than 200,000 people. Egypt remains one of the Sudanese army's closest allies in its war against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), but views the conflict south of its roughly 1,200-kilometre border as a major threat to its own security.