An air strike killed at least 72 gold miners near the disputed border between Sudan and Egypt on Saturday, according to the Sudanese rights group Emergency Lawyers.

The Khartoum-based group said fighter jets hit miners at a mining area in Sudan's River Nile state. "Egyptian fighter jets targeted civilian miners in the northern Wadi area inside Sudanese territory," it wrote on X. It called the toll preliminary and said the strikes "may constitute war crimes."

The claim cannot be independently confirmed. Neither the Egyptian government nor Sudan's army-backed authorities have commented officially. Al Jazeera reported that images shared online, which it could not verify, showed dozens of bodies.

The counts vary. Sudan Doctors' Network gave an early count of 13 dead and 28 wounded and said the toll would likely rise, The National reported. Witnesses said the attack began around 6 a.m. and that more than five missiles hit the miners' camps, the BBC reported.

Accounts also differ on where the strike happened. Al Jazeera reports that the rights group says it hit inside Sudan. The National cites sources in Cairo who say it targeted illegal miners on Egyptian land who had been warned to leave. An image shared online appeared to show leaflets dropped before the strike, titled "final security warning."

It was the second reported attack this year on the Jabal al-Uqaydat gold area. Strikes there in June killed 23 workers, Al Jazeera said. Egypt's military said then that it had run a "large-scale operation" against illegal gold mining.

Sudan's war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces began in April 2023. It has killed more than 200,000 people and pushed many into gold mining, which helps pay for both sides' fighting.

What we know: A rights group says at least 72 miners died in a Saturday air strike, and Egypt has not officially commented.
What we don't: Who carried out the strike, the full death toll, and which side of the border it hit.