The human rights organization Emergency Lawyers said that an airstrike on Saturday killed at least 72 civilian mining workers in Sudan, marking the second similar incident in several months.
Images circulating on social media and photographs published by local human rights organizations, which Reuters has not independently verified, show dozens of bodies scattered among the rubble, others wrapped in shrouds, and miners speaking about an airstrike on the area.
Emergency Lawyers said that such a cross-border attack constitutes a violation of the law.
Northern Sudan has witnessed an influx of mining workers and the emergence of temporary gold mines, as the ongoing war in the country has disrupted other sources of livelihood. Gold has become the main source of cash for both warring parties.
The war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has seen an increase in incidents resulting in large numbers of fatalities, particularly as drone warfare has become the dominant mode of combat.
The United Nations says that around 31 people were killed last Friday in a drone strike on a displacement camp in an army-controlled area of Sudan’s Blue Nile State, one of the front lines in the war.
