KEY POINTS
- Egypt’s army says it arrested 151 Egyptians and 540 foreigners near the Sudan border.
- More than 6,000 others surrendered before the operation began, it said.
- At least 72 miners were killed in an October airstrike on a border mine.
Egypt’s army says it arrested 691 illegal gold miners near the country’s border with Sudan, Africanews reported, citing AFP.
Army spokesman Ahmed Etman said Thursday that the military operation netted 151 Egyptians and 540 foreigners. More than 6,000 others had surrendered before it began, he added. The army also released images it said showed illegal miners operating near the border.
Gold miners operation follows deadly strike
The operation comes weeks after airstrikes on a gold mine on the Sudan-Egypt border killed at least 72 gold miners in October. A rights organization accused the Egyptian air force of carrying out that attack.
Etman appeared to deny that the military had targeted civilians. He told a news conference that operations relied on precise, confirmed intelligence, including coordinates of weapons and ammunition depots, which armed drones then struck. He insisted “no civilians were targeted.”
However, it was not clear whether he was referring to the deadly October strike.
Gold fuels Sudan’s war
Gold has played a central role in Sudan’s war. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have smuggled gold out of the Darfur and Kordofan regions to fund their fight, according to the report.
More than half of the gold mined in Sudan was smuggled out of the country, according to a 2024 U.N. Panel of Experts report.
