KHARTOUM: A gunman killed two Egyptian nationals and wounded a third in Khartoum on Monday, a Sudanese security official said, two days after an airstrike blamed by a rights group on Egypt killed 72 people near the countries’ shared border.

“A gunman opened fire on three Egyptian citizens,” the official said. “Two of them died, while the third was injured and transferred to hospital.” The official added that police had cordoned off the area and were searching for the attacker.

Egypt’s foreign ministry said the victims were truck drivers and that its ambassador in Sudan had been tasked with checking on the injured man and arranging the return of the two bodies to Egypt. The motive behind the attack was not immediately clear, and it was unknown whether it was linked to the airstrike.

The border attack took place in a vast, mineral-rich region that stretches for hundreds of kilometres across the frontier and includes the disputed Halayeb Triangle, a territory claimed by both Sudan and Egypt.

The region has become a magnet for informal miners as Sudan’s war has wrecked livelihoods and driven thousands toward the gold trade. Gold remains one of Sudan’s few functioning economic lifelines and a major source of revenue for both sides of the conflict. The area is also a key corridor for smuggling.

Much of the gold extracted in army-controlled eastern Sudan is believed to pass through Egypt before reaching international markets via the United Arab Emirates, one of the world’s largest gold trading hubs.

Saturday’s attack is the second reported strike this year on Jabal al-Uqaydat. In June, airstrikes reportedly carried out by Egypt killed 23 workers at the same informal mine.

At the time, the Egyptian military did not claim responsibility but also said it had conducted a “large-scale operation” against illegal gold mining within its borders.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2026