United States slapped fresh sanctions on Sudan’s government on Friday, accusing it of deploying chemical weapons in its continued fighting against opposing paramilitary groups. The action follows a formal determination by the State Department in May that Sudan had broken the Chemical Weapons Convention, to which it has been a signatory since 1999.
The charges follow Sudan’s civil war, which in April 2023 broke out between the national army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The US government once blamed the RSF for genocide during the war. In January, it stated that Sudan’s army had used chlorine gas in at least two attacks in 2024, reportedly with the sanction of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
While Washington has not made public the locations and dates of the attacks, Sudan’s government brushed aside the charges as “baseless” and termed them as “political blackmail.” The sanctions, which were to come into force on June 6, cover US exports as well as financial dealings with Sudan. But humanitarian assistance would be exempted, given that almost 25 million people in Sudan are suffering from acute food insecurity.
Sudan has a past history of purported chemical weapon use. Amnesty International in 2016 accused the military at the time allied with the RSF of conducting chemical attacks on civilians in Darfur, which Khartoum also rejected. The US bombed Sudan’s Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in 1998 for suspected connection to chemical weapons and al-Qaeda.
As a result of the 2019 overthrow of long-time leader Omar al-Bashir, the US removed various sanctions. These were restored following a 2021 coup d’etat by Burhan and his then-deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo (Hemedti). Both groups have become more prosperous despite sanctions, as Sudan descends further into humanitarian crisis. The UN estimates more than 10 million internally displaced and famine sweeping across the country.
