US slaps new sanctions on Sudan after chlorine gas deployment claims

The latest sanctions, which came into effect on Monday, restrict Sudan's access to US financing and exports and ban Sudanese state-owned airlines from using US airspace.

The US State Department said last month it had determined that "the government of Sudan used chemical weapons in 2024", in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Sudan ratified in 1999.

Washington has not said where or when the attacks took place or identified the chemicals used.

In a statement on Sunday, Sudan's army-aligned government rejected the allegations, calling them "unilateral and illegal" and "baseless". 

Chemical weapons claims

Last year, the New York Times, citing four anonymous senior US officials, said the chemical agent used, with the direct approval of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, was chlorine.

RFI's sister television channel, France 24, also reported that the army dropped two chlorine gas barrels near the al-Jaili oil refinery north of Khartoum in September 2024.

Using open-source data, social media footage and analysis from five experts, the media outlet said the area was under the control of the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) at the time.

The army, which has been in control of Sudan for most of its post-independence history since 1956, has been accused of carrying out chemical attacks before.

In 2016, an Amnesty International investigation accused the army – then allied with the RSF – of using chemical weapons on civilians in the western region of Darfur.

Khartoum denied the accusations.
Sudan denies chemical contamination after US sanctions over weapons

Civil war

The war between the army and the RSF began in April 2023 after a power struggle betweenFattah al-Burhan and RSF commanderMohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The US hasimposed sanctions on both men. It has also accused RSF commanders of committing genocide in Darfur.

Relations between Washington and Khartoum have been strained for decades. Most US sanctions imposed under former president Omar al-Bashir were lifted after his overthrow in 2019, before some were reimposed following a military coup in 2021.

The conflict has since created what the United Nations calls the world's largest humanitarian crisis.

Sudan's RSF paramilitaries accused of crimes against humanity in El Fasher

Nearly 20 million people are facing acute food insecurity and aid groups estimate that more than 200,000 people have been killed.

US-led efforts to broker a ceasefire, including talks with Saudi Arabia, and a proposed 3-month humanitarian truce, have failed to end the fighting.

(with newswires)