Air strikes on a Sudanese gold mine near the Egyptian border kill at least 72, and rights groups blame Egypt

Air strikes hit artisanal gold mining camps near Sudan's border with Egypt on Saturday and killed dozens of people, according to miners quoted by the Sudan Tribune. Rights groups said the death toll had reached at least 72, with more than 50 injured, the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National reported. The strikes hit the Al-Uqaydat mine near the Al-Ansari market in River Nile state, and thousands of miners fled into the mountains.

The site lies hundreds of miles from the front lines of Sudan's civil war, and videos from the scene showed what appeared to be Egyptian munitions, according to The New York Times. The Sudanese rights group Emergency Lawyers accused the Egyptian air force of carrying out the attack. Egypt has issued no official comment, and AFP could not independently confirm the account. Al Jazeera broadcast footage from the area.

The border has a history of tension over gold. Egyptian border guards have accused Sudanese prospectors of crossing an unmarked boundary to mine near sites run by Egyptian companies. Survivors blamed Egyptian aircraft for deadly raids on the same Al-Uqaydat site in June. Cairo is an ally of Sudan's army-led government in the civil war, which makes an Egyptian strike inside army-held territory politically awkward for both governments if the accusation is confirmed.

The high price of gold increases the economic incentive behind the violence. With spot gold near $4,170 an ounce, informal mining in Sudan's northern desert has become a major source of income and a contested resource for armed groups and neighboring states.