SPT
Egyptian warplanes carried out airstrikes on Tuesday deep inside Sudanese territory, targeting civilian miners in the Jabal Al-Aqaydat area, according to multiple field testimonies and local accounts. The attack marks a significant escalation in Egypt’s involvement in Sudan’s conflict and is considered one of the most serious incidents attributed to Egyptian forces since the war began.
According to local testimonies and Sudanese observers, this incident represents more than a new violation of Sudanese sovereignty. Rather, it reflects a shift in Egypt’s involvement from indirect political and military influence to direct military engagement inside Sudanese territory. The attack comes amid growing accusations that the Egyptian regime has played a pivotal role in prolonging Sudan’s war and fueling the conflict through military and political support provided to the army leadership, effectively turning Sudan into an arena for external intervention at the expense of civilian lives and the interests of the Sudanese people.
Jabal Al-Aqaydat is known as one of Sudan’s largest artisanal gold-mining areas, attracting thousands of traditional miners from across the country. Unofficial estimates place their number at approximately 7,000.
According to testimonies from miners and eyewitnesses, the bombardment killed at least 35 people and injured around 80 others, while dozens remain missing. The casualties resulted from airstrikes attributed to Egyptian Air Force aircraft targeting mining sites in the area.
Miners published videos on Facebook and TikTok, which SPT verified as authentic, showing wrapped bodies, wounded civilians, and desperate appeals for help. Those who recorded the footage described the situation as catastrophic. Several miners said they had previously been subjected to ground attacks which they attributed to the Egyptian military, including the seizure of gold and mining equipment. However, they said this was the first time they had come under direct aerial bombardment.
Mubarak Adam, an eyewitness, told SPT that the strikes began in the early morning hours and initially targeted the main mining site in Jabal Al-Aqaydat, resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries, some of them critical.
“I saw four Egyptian military aircraft, which appeared to be MiG fighter jets,” he said.
Adam explained that while fleeing the area, they managed to transport a number of injured people in trucks to the Al-Ansari market area in Abu Hamad locality in Northern State.
He said the Egyptian aircraft continued flying over the area for more than two hours before striking Jabal Al-Ahmar near Al-Ansari, an area located close to the administrative boundaries of Red Sea State and River Nile State.
“What I witnessed was nothing short of a full-scale massacre,” Adam said. “I saw bodies being blown apart and thrown into the air by the bombardment before I found myself running at full speed and taking shelter inside a tunnel in the mountain.”
For his part, Hussein Al-Nour said that an Egyptian aircraft accompanied by drones had been flying over the area at various times of the day since last Friday, suggesting that they were conducting surveillance, reconnaissance and aerial mapping operations ahead of the attack.
He stressed that what he witnessed was “a deliberate targeting of people rather than mining infrastructure or work sites,” adding: “I saw missiles and incendiary munitions raining down on miners and tearing them to pieces.”
Al-Nour agreed with Adam’s account regarding the number of aircraft involved in the attack, saying there were four warplanes. He added that he believed they were Sukhoi aircraft, before clarifying that he could not be certain of their exact type.
“This is a blatant act of aggression and a grave violation of Sudanese sovereignty, but we have no government that protects its citizens and no national army that defends the country. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan himself has become a soldier taking orders from Abdel Fattah El-Sisi,” he said.
“We fled the war and came here to earn a living through our own hard work under extremely difficult conditions, yet we are being killed by the aircraft of a hostile state inside our own country.”
“We are dying here and elsewhere so that Burhan can remain in power,” he added.
When SPT asked a number of survivors about the reasons that might have prompted Egyptian aircraft to target unarmed civilian workers inside Sudanese territory, three of those interviewed agreed that the objective was to seize control of gold resources and exploit the conditions created by the war to expand Egyptian influence over parts of Sudan.
Al-Nour said: “Egypt does not see Sudan as a homeland, nor Sudanese as a people. They see only land and resources. If they could, they would empty the country of its people in order to seize its wealth.”
These allegations have reignited growing debate within Sudanese circles over the nature of Egypt’s role in the war that has been ongoing since April 2023, and the extent of its influence on the course of the conflict and the future of political and security stability in the country.
A broad segment of Sudanese society, particularly within political and intellectual circles, believes that Egypt’s policy towards Sudan is based on a strategic vision aimed at keeping the country in a state of dependency that obstructs its agricultural and industrial development, limits its ability to make full use of its natural resources and share of Nile waters, and ultimately reduces Sudan to a source of raw materials, a market for Egyptian goods, and an instrument serving Cairo’s regional interests.
Political figures within the Civil Democratic Forces Alliance argue that the Egyptian regime played a decisive structural role in undermining Sudan’s civilian democratic transition, in the 25 October 2021 coup, and in igniting the 15 April 2023 war and prolonging its duration.
These figures further contend that the establishment of the Al-Oweinat air base along the Sudanese border has provided a platform from which warplanes, guided missiles, and Turkish-made Bayraktar drones are launched into Sudanese territory, particularly towards Kordofan and Darfur. According to this view, such operations have contributed to extending the war and deepening the humanitarian catastrophe.
More than a day after the incident, neither the Egyptian government, the Egyptian military, nor Egyptian state media had issued any comment. The official spokesperson of the Sudanese army also declined to respond to an SPT inquiry regarding the alleged violation of Sudanese airspace by Egyptian military aircraft and the airstrikes inside Sudanese territory that reportedly killed and injured dozens of civilians.
A prominent political figure, who requested anonymity, told SPT that while the Egyptian regime publicly declares its support for the Quadrilateral Initiative for peace in Sudan, it privately pressures army leaders to reject it in pursuit of what he described as narrow and short-sighted interests.
He added that while Sudanese blood continues to be shed, Nile waters, including Sudan’s share, continue to flow into Egypt. Sudanese exports controlled by companies linked to the military establishment, along with livestock and agricultural products sold at the lowest prices, also continue to enter the Egyptian market.
He further noted that Sudanese gold has significantly strengthened the reserves of Egypt’s Central Bank throughout the years of war, arguing that this raises serious questions about the extent to which the Egyptian regime benefits from the continuation of the conflict and the suffering of the Sudanese people.
According to the same source, such profiteering has reached inhumane levels, with entry visas to Egypt reportedly being sold, even to patients and vulnerable individuals, for thousands of dollars.
Influential groups within Sudan’s democratic civilian forces believe that achieving peace in Sudan will remain extremely difficult unless Egyptian interventions viewed as a major factor in prolonging the war and complicating prospects for a political settlement are effectively curbed.
Sudanese civilian groups say they are looking to international actors seeking peace in Sudan, particularly the United States and the European Union, to take concrete measures towards Egypt. These include ending its hosting of Sudanese Islamist groups and their media and organisational networks, halting the supply of arms and ammunition to the Sudanese army, stopping military operations launched from the West Oweinat base, and abandoning what they describe as a dual policy of publicly calling for peace while continuing to fuel the war on the ground.
As the war continues to claim Sudanese lives, growing numbers of civilian voices argue that no serious path towards peace will be possible unless external interventions foremost among them Egyptian intervention are confronted as one of the principal drivers of the conflict and a key obstacle to a political settlement. These voices maintain that respect for Sudan’s sovereignty and an end to all forms of foreign military and political interference remain essential prerequisites for any sustainable settlement capable of ending the war and opening the way towards peace and stability.
