Deadly Airstrikes Expose Growing Battle Over Sudan’s Gold

Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict Air strikes on October 10 killed at least 72 artisanal gold miners at Shamal al-Wadi, in the far north of Sudan’s Red Sea state, along a border Egypt is policing to control a gold trade it now dominates. Survivors put the toll above 200. Miners and Sudanese rights groups blame Egyptian aircraft, and no government has claimed the strikes. Egypt treats the disputed area as its own territory and says its operations against illegal prospecting stayed inside its borders. It is the second deadly raid on the same area since June, when more than 50 were…