Sudan General Al-Burhan's silence questioned after strikes along Egypt border

Sudan Army commander General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

The silence of Sudan Army commander General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan after an air strike on the country’s border with Egypt is now raising questions in the country.

The strike left dozens of artisanal gold miners dead near the Egyptian border in Jabal al-Uqaydat on Saturday, October 10, 2026, which has remained untouched by the ongoing war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The aircraft alleged to be responsible for the attack was identified by activists and miners to be from the Egyptian Air Force.

Videos on Sudanese social media showed dead bodies and the death tolls is not known yet with survivors reporting that the strikes took place at around 8am.

Sudan's Sovereignty Council and the Port Sudan authorities are yet to issue any statement or update.

The Sudan Doctors Network in an interview with the Associated Press (AP) said that 13 were killed and 28 wounded but warned that the numbers could rise with emergency Lawyers, a Khartoum-based rights group, putting the death toll at 72.

Different media organizations have put the number of those killed to between 120 and 150.

Cairo has not acknowledged the strike but army officials told Reuters that an operation was carried out in the region meant to end ‘chaos’ along the border to stop groups from siezing gold mines.

Military spokesman Colonel Ahmed Atman on October 12, 2026, said that Egypt’s security agencies would carry out a campaign against illegal gold mining along the border.

In Sudan after the strike, lawyers accused Cairo of targeting civilian miners and faulted the Sovereignty Council which just expressed condolences for those killed and announced a fact-finding mission would be undertaken.

On June 16, 2026, the same area was struck by suspected Egyptian jets which was later followed by ground patrols on June 21 by about 60 vehicles that saw the arrest of 67 Sudanese miners

Egypt reported the detention of 223 people, including 136 foreign nationals, and officials at the Argeen crossing said more than 3,000 Sudanese miners had been deported.

General Al-Burhan while addressing the June strike in the Red Sea State said that the country holds respect for its neighbors.

"Our northern neighbour must be respected, and its borders must not be crossed, so that people do not cause problems for themselves and for the state," he said and in October he ordered a probe without naming responsible parties.

His foreign relations adviser, Amjad Farid, described the attack as “an unjustified and unacceptable crime”.

The targeted region, Jabal al-Uqaydat, lies within the gold-rich Nubian Shield geological belt, and much of the gold mined along this border ends up in Egypt with locals saying that Egyptian officials had taken over the mine.

A March 2025 Chatham House report by Ahmed Soliman and Suliman Baldo estimated that unofficial and smuggled exports to Egypt account for about 60 per cent of the gold produced in Northern, River Nile and Red Sea states.

The smuggled gold is more than 100 kilograms a day and a total of more than 60 tonnes in 2023 and 2024.

Official gold exports to Egypt in 2024 were worth about $16 million, around 1 per cent of Sudan's total, according to Central Bank of Sudan.

Khartoum’s relations with Cairo have been cordial due to the latter standing with the former in its war with RSF.

There have been satellite images showing Turkish-made Bayraktar Akinci drone at Egypt's East Oweinat airstrip, about 60 kilometres from the Sudanese border.

The drones have also been recovered in areas alleged to have struck by the army targeting RSF controlled areas.