Egypt embroiled in Sudan border battles with smugglers

Buoyed by their success, gold smugglers on the Sudanese-Egyptian border are now trafficking a wide array of goods, including fuel, weapons, and human beings.

But they have been met with a brutal response from the Egyptian military, which has deployed helicopters, snipers and heavy weapons during attacks that have left smugglers dead in remote and mountainous border regions.

The war in Sudan, which began in April 2023, has created the conditions for these illegal networks to flourish, with widespread insecurity and tension along the border a by-product of the military and political situation.

While Egyptian authorities are trying to prevent the smuggling of fuel and other goods, they are turning a blind eye to the passage of gold into Egypt, which is seen as being beneficial to the country’s stricken economy.

According to eyewitnesses and smugglers who spoke to Middle East Eye, the Egyptian army has deployed military reinforcements along Egypt’s southern border to try and stabilise the situation while a security vacuum persists in neighbouring Sudan.

Multiple sources, including smugglers, told MEE that huge amounts of gold have been taken from Sudan to Egypt since the war in Sudan began.

Cyanide and mercury, which are illegal in Egypt because of their toxicity and the harm they cause humans and animals, are heading north across the border.

Going the other way, from Egypt to Sudan, is cheap fuel, food, goods and other supplies for the gold mines of Sudan’s Red Sea and northern states.

More seriously, human beings and weapons are also being smuggled between the two countries.

Fuel to Sudan, gold to Egypt

A trader operating between Sudan and Egypt told MEE that fuel has become one of the most profitable goods for smuggling.

In Egypt, where fuel is subsidised (though this will reportedly end by the end of 2025) prices are much lower than in Sudan, which is suffering from a severe lack of fuel. 

“In the new gold mining areas of Sudan, especially those in eastern Sudan and River Niles state such as Alansari, Nouraaya and others, the fuel that comes from Egypt is the main source of operations,” the Sudanese owner of a gold mine in the country’s Red Sea desert region, said.

The fuel that comes from Egypt is also widely used for agricultural projects in the safe areas controlled by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), which is at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The smugglers of gold, fuel and other goods are mostly men from the Ababda, Rashaida and Bishari tribes, which are present on both sides of the Egypt-Sudan border.

A driver told MEE that fuel and food supplies including groceries are the main items brought by smugglers from Egypt into Sudan, while gold, mercury and cyanide are the main items smuggled the other way.

“The price of fuel in Egypt is subsidised, with the price of a gallon at around a dollar, while its price in Sudan is between five and six dollars,” the driver, who asked for anonymity for security reasons, said. “Fuel has become one of the main black-market goods.”

Several gold miners working in the new Red Sea desert mines told MEE operations were mainly powered by Egyptian fuel.

Photos obtained by MEE from inside these gold mining areas showed long queues of fuel containers arriving from Egypt, with miners using the fuel to operate mercury mills and other machines used in gold extraction.

Another driver involved in the smuggling business told MEE that the Spanish mercury and cyanide used in gold extraction in Sudan and prohibited in Egypt had also been trafficked into Egypt because of its wide use by miners.

“This market is huge - and I can tell you that at least 200 vehicles are moving every day between the two countries carrying the gold, fuel, human beings and other smuggled materials,” he said.

“Even the food, Starlink internet devices and other needs are coming from Egypt to these areas. In some cases, the traders and smugglers exchange the gold with the mediators in Egypt and buy large amounts of fuel and immediately take it back to Sudan,” the driver said.

Egyptian military deploys helicopters

This thriving smuggling business has been met by a heavy response from the Egyptian military.

Local sources told MEE that Egyptian troops with helicopters and snipers have been seen around the mountains and crossing points between Sudan and Egypt and that these troops had killed or injured a number of smugglers.

On the other side, smugglers from Sudan and Egypt have armed and organised themselves on the border between the two countries, challenging the Egyptian anti-smuggling units backed by the army.

In southern Aswan and other areas in the south of Egypt, armed smugglers engaged in organised crime and illegal trade are pursued by military forces.

“We can’t move without arming ourselves because the Egyptian army sometimes have mobile checkpoints and you must avoid that,” one Egyptian smuggler told MEE.

“We have many times engaged in clashes with them. Some of our friends have been injured and we heard of others that were killed.”

“The other danger comes from the gangs who loot the drivers on the way between the two countries. They are hiding inside the mountains and if you don’t arm yourself well, you might have your gold or even your car looted,” he said.

An Egyptian analyst, who asked not to be named for security reasons, told MEE that Egyptian authorities were particularly concerned by the increased smuggling subsidised of goods – which includes fuel.

“Gangs working on weapons smuggling between the two countries is an old situation,” the analyst said. “The smuggling of gold has increased tensions. With the insecurity in Sudan due to the war and the huge numbers of people coming to Egypt, the border region has become very insecure, particularly as it is very long with many difficult to navigate off-roads.”

Disputed borderlands 

Another hot area is the Halaib Triangle, a disputed territory claimed by both Egypt and Sudan.

Many of the new gold mining areas are here, including Mesba, Alalagy valley, the Salah mining area, the mountains of Urjeem and Alanbat, among others.

Gold operations began in the Salah area of the Halaib Triangle in 2017, but since 2020 it has been used by the Egyptian state-owned Shalateen Mineral Resources Company, which expelled some local miners and artisans.

The smugglers and miners running gold on the Egypt-Sudan border

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Sudanese miners who fled the area after a large attack by the Egyptian army in August 2024, told MEE that miners were killed and injured in the attack.

Ismail Ahmed, who was working in the area until last August, told MEE that the Egyptian army and anti-smuggling units had attacked miners in the region, particularly in the Salah mining area.

“The area has been frequently attacked by Egyptian authorities since 2022, but the attac last August was the biggest, as they used heavy machines, helicopters and the result was the killing of dozens of artisans and small miners who are mainly Sudanese.

"Some Egyptians were also killed. Thousands of people have accordingly fled towards Sudan or other areas in Egypt,” he said.

“The anti-smuggling units have also burned down the machines and the mining equipment the miners have left in the fields. I heard that some Egyptian and foreign investors are supposed to fully control this area,” Ahmed said.

British, Russian, Australian and other international players are all involved in the rush for gold in the region. There have been reports that Shalateen, which is already operating in the same locality, is intending to seize the Salah site and run it.

In 2023, Shalateen produced over 300kgs of gold from the area, according to statistics from the Egyptian corporation of mineral resources.  

Regional networks

The tension and competition over gold mining and smuggling is spread widely across the region, taking in not just Egypt but Ethiopia, Eritrea, Chad and South Sudan, a Sudanese researcher, who could not be named, said.

Gold mining operations intersect across Sudan's vast borders. There are overlapping mining activities not just in the Halaib Triangle but also in the region connecting Sudan, Libya and Egypt.

“Sudan's borders with Chad witness overlapping mining activities,” the researcher said.

“Additionally, mining intersects with trade activities between the regions of north and west Darfur, and central and northern Chad (Al-Tina and Kouri). Similarly, intersection of mining activities occurs on the borders of Sudan with Ethiopia, and to a lesser extent Eritrea.

“Joint mining activities with South Sudan on the borders with South Darfur has recently commenced, especially in the Boro, Raja and Aweil regions.”