Suspicion of the use of chemical weapons in Sudan: what we know

US authorities have imposed sanctions against the Sudanese government this weekend due to its use of chemical weapons in its war against paramilitaries, according to official documents.

The US State Department had accused Sudan last May of having used chemical weapons in 2024. It was not the first time that this African country, politically unstable since its independence in 1956, has been targeted by such accusations.

In a notice dated Friday, the State Department confirmed the entry into force for at least one year of sanctions on the Sudanese government, except on emergency humanitarian aid and agricultural products. “The Sudanese government used its chemical weapons in 2024,” accused the State Department, in a press release published on May 22, without location or dates.

According to Washington, Sudan thus violates the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (CIAC), which it ratified in May 1999. The Sudanese government denied these accusations “without proof” and “without foundation”. The planned sanctions include restrictions on access to American government credits and limitations on US exports to Sudan.

In January, the New York Times citing four anonymous American American sources, had written that the Sudanese army had used chemical weapons on at least two times in its war against the paramilitaries of the rapid support forces (FSR).

The chemical agent used with the direct downstream of the army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, is chlorine, according to these sources cited by the newspaper. In 2016, Amnesty International had already accused the armed forces of having led at least 30 chemical attacks in the Darfur region, during an offensive against the rebels of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA-An). At the time already, Khartoum had denied as a whole. Amnesty had asked for an investigation from the United Nations, without result.

In 1998, the United States claimed that the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum produced chemical components on behalf of Al-Qaeda before bombing the site. Washington has never supported his accusations which have not been the subject of any investigation.

The war that has been tearing Sudan since April 2023 made tens of thousands of deaths and more than 13 million displaced. According to the UN, it is “the greatest current humanitarian crisis”.

The conflict was born from the rivalry between General Al-Burhane and his former right-hand man, General Daglo, briefly allied to dismiss civilians from power and form a military transition after the fall of President Omar El-Bechir in 2019.

Relations between Sudan and the United States were tense under the regime of Omar El-Bechir, which came to power in 1993 with the support of Islamists and accused of support for terrorism. American sanctions imposed in the early 1990s were reinforced in 2006-2007, after accusations of “genocide” in the Darfur region.

The fall of Omar el-Bechir is accompanied by a certain warming until the war of the generals again ravages the country. In January, the United States imposed financial sanctions on the two main players in the conflict: the head of the FSR General Mohamed Daglo, accused of “genocide” and his rival, the army chief, accused of aiming for civil infrastructure and of using “the deprivation of food as war tactics”.

Washington was the largest donor in Sudan in 2024, contributing to 45 % of $ 1.8 billion mobilized by the United Nations humanitarian intervention plan. In January, the Trump administration suspended the majority of aid abroad for 90 days, allowing only vital emergency programs. American exports to Sudan represented $ 56.6 million in 2024, according to data from the US census office.