Gold, drugs and weapons... Details of the story of prospectors who ignited a crisis between Egypt and Sudan

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The issue of "ghosts", or illegal prospectors of gold ores in the Eastern Desert, has occupied political and media circles in Egypt and Sudan recently, following the emergence of rumors and electronic campaigns that attempted to exploit the Egyptian state's movements to impose security discipline and fabricate an imaginary crisis between Egypt and Sudan.

The crisis was further exacerbated by the announcement by Sudanese human rights organizations that 72 Sudanese working in gold prospecting were killed in a raid on the Egyptian-Sudanese border, and their demand that the Sudanese government investigate. This coincided with the killing of two Egyptians and the injury of a third in a shooting incident in a popular market in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and the confessions of the killer, a young Sudanese national, of committing the incident in retaliation for the killing of his brother in the raid on the border between the two countries.

Here we must return to the roots of the story.

The story began months ago, due to the ongoing war in Sudan between the army forces and the Rapid Support Forces, and the infiltration of some Sudanese into Egypt, where criminal networks and organizations took advantage of the confusing scene inside Sudan to infiltrate across the remote desert and form hotspots for random prospecting for gold, smuggling, and illicit trafficking in weapons and drugs, which forced the Egyptian state to intervene to protect its national security and economic stability.

The activity of these organizations extended to large areas on the border between the two countries, most of which are located within Egyptian territory, specifically within the Jabal Iqat area, which is located within the borders of the Egyptian Red Sea Governorate, that is, in an area under Egyptian sovereignty and territory.

All of this coincided with widespread operations to transport illegally extracted gold outside the country, in addition to major violations that included widespread killing and smuggling.

In view of this, last June, the Egyptian army, in cooperation with members of the Ministry of Interior, carried out a massive campaign targeting these criminal hotspots and armed organizations.

It resulted in the arrest of 87 Egyptian individuals and 136 foreign individuals involved in these activities, and the confiscation of 14 cars of various types, wireless communication devices, quantities of unlicensed weapons and ammunition, sums of money in Egyptian pounds and foreign currencies, and large numbers of random excavation equipment.

Immediately, the accused and the seized items were referred to the competent judicial authorities, and a number of illegal infiltrators took the initiative to surrender themselves to the security points at the start of the operation, where they were provided with the necessary humanitarian care and deported to their country.

The arrested defendants gave detailed testimonies before the investigating authorities, revealing the dimensions of the random prospecting phenomenon and the mechanism of luring them.

A number of the arrested members, the majority of whom were Sudanese, admitted to entering Egyptian territory through smuggling, while others explained that they were lured by false promises about the availability of opportunities to get rich quickly and extract gold.

Investigations showed that the work was carried out in “shifts” lasting from 10 to 15 days in exchange for amounts ranging from 8 to 10 thousand pounds, without a real guarantee of achieving any return.

The defendants relied on simple tools to crush, grind, and wash stones in specialized containers. One of the defendants reported that the quantities extracted varied, as sometimes they did not exceed 5 or 6 grams, while other groups succeeded in extracting dozens of grams.

During another recent campaign by the Egyptian army, the defendants were surprised by the security campaign and received warning leaflets asking them to stay away from those areas and return to their country, but there was no response, which prompted the forces to arrest them.

One of those arrested said that he was surprised by the forces as soon as he left a mountainous area with no communications networks, while another indicated that he tried to leave the area after news spread of the army’s arrival, but he was caught in an ambush.

The security measures for the confrontation ranged from public warnings by all means, giving violators an opportunity to retreat and surrender themselves in order to preserve their lives, while punishing those who are arrested with imprisonment and graduated fines in accordance with Egyptian law, all the way to more stringent campaigns to impose state sovereignty.

The defendants sent warning messages to anyone thinking about entering Egypt or working in illegal gold prospecting, stressing that what they did was a grave mistake, and that the security campaigns ended these activities within the region.

Commenting on this, Major General Staff Yassin Taher, advisor to the Military Academy for Postgraduate and Strategic Studies, said in exclusive statements to Al Arabiya.net and Al Hadath.net: “The phenomenon of random gold prospecting in Egypt is not new, but its intensity has increased recently due to the confusing scene in Sudan,” explaining that these illegal prospectors have intensified their presence in southern Egypt in an illegal manner, which is considered a real threat to Egyptian national security.

He continued that, in addition to that, their illegal prospecting for gold coincided with the emergence of external parties deliberately creating a state of intense conflict between tribes and families in Sudan over the prospecting areas, especially with the information that became available about the existence of more than a hundred gold sites in the Eastern Desert, which increased the influx of these people.

He explained that, accordingly, Egypt decided to take a firm stance regarding this phenomenon through intensive and successive security campaigns within the framework of a comprehensive plan to control the situation.

Major General Yassin Taher indicated that the security measures for the confrontation ranged from public warnings by all means, giving violators an opportunity to retreat and surrender themselves in order to preserve their lives, while punishing those who are arrested with imprisonment and graduated fines in accordance with Egyptian law, all the way to more stringent campaigns to impose state sovereignty.

The military specialist stressed that, in accordance with the above, these operations carried out by the Egyptian authorities do not in any way affect the distinguished relationship between the two brotherly peoples, Egyptian and Sudanese, calling for not to be led by suspicious campaigns that aim to create strife and discord between the brothers.

Major General Staff Dr. Wael Rabie, a specialist in regional and strategic affairs, told Al-Arabiya.net and Al-Hadath.net: “Sudan is witnessing during the current period a state of instability and security fluidity resulting from the war, which has resulted in some armed groups, who call themselves goldsmiths or miners, prospecting for gold, and in fact they are looking for quick sources of funding such as gold, and it is not unlikely that these elements will be supportive of the Rapid Support elements that have been restricted.” It depends on its funding sources from other regions.

Some of these elements were involved in attacks on army and police forces and targeted mining companies operating legally, which forced the implementation of a massive security campaign.

He continued: “These groups were warned by throwing leaflets at them to stay away from the Egyptian border and not the Sudanese border, but they did not comply with the warnings,” explaining that “in light of the Egyptian state’s conviction that indiscriminate exploration wastes billions of dollars and threatens efforts to expand legal mining work and official investments in the south, it was necessary to take urgent and rapid preventive action so that this phenomenon does not spread.”

Major General Wael Rabie explained that some of these elements were involved in attacks on the army and police forces and targeted mining companies operating legally, which forced the implementation of a broad security campaign based on accurate intelligence information to dismantle these hotspots and dry up the sources of the threat.

He concluded by saying, “It may be appropriate not to give the issue a political dimension,” calling for avoiding any strife between the neighboring Egyptian and Sudanese peoples, and that Egypt focuses only on combating organized crime, smuggling, penetrating borders, and fighting criminal gangs to protect the stability of the region.