Sudan’s civil war, simmering since 2016 and erupting with renewed ferocity in 2023, has descended into a brutal conflict between President Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Amid the chaos, disturbing reports of chemical weapons use have resurfaced, casting a shadow over an already grim situation.
The SAF has faced accusations of deploying chemical weapons as far back as 2016 in Darfur’s Jebel Marra region, where Amnesty International documented 30 chlorine gas attacks that killed 250 civilians.
In 2024, these allegations resurfaced with disturbing reports of SAF aircraft dropping chemical-laden bombs in al-Korma and Mellit, western Sudan, turning local water sources pink and causing widespread sickness and deaths. The SAF’s leadership has not shied away from aggressive rhetoric. Lieutenant General Yasser al-Atta, Assistant Commander-in-Chief, declared, “We will use the maximum amount of lethal weapons,” while al-Burhan warned, “We might be forced to use lethal force if the Rapid Support Forces do not comply.”
In September 2024, Sudan rejected international calls to allow human rights activists and chemical weapons experts to inspect the affected sites. Despite this, American and European humanitarian teams have collected soil, water, and even samples from burned corpses to confirm the use of chemical agents, including chlorine gas attacks near Khartoum’s TV and radio station and the presidential palace. So the allegations appear to be substantiated which should worry the world!
Compounding the crisis, al-Burhan’s SAF has allied with extremist groups, including the Islamist Al-Bara’ ibn Malik Battalion, named after an early Muslim military leader. This group is implicated in atrocities like the murder of 70 youth soup kitchen volunteers in Halfaya, Khartoum Bahri, and is accused of collaborating with the RSF. The SAF’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and other jihadist factions further darken the conflict’s outlook. The Brotherhood’s influence, through its National Islamic Front (NIF), has a grim history in Sudan, with atrocities in the 1990s including beheadings and the disembowelment of pregnant women. Truly terrible.
This is not Sudan’s first encounter with chemical weapons concerns. In 1998, the U.S. bombed the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum as part of Operation Infinite Reach, following Al-Qaeda’s attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people. The factory was linked to Osama bin Laden’s network and the production of VX nerve agent precursors.
Sudan’s decades-long conflict, fuelled by political instability and the growing influence of extremist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, continues to spiral out of control. It’s time for the international community to act decisively and investigate these serious chemical weapons allegations, hold the perps accountable, and address the extremist ideologies driving this war. Without intervention, Sudan risks becoming a crucible for even greater atrocities. That is in no one’s best interest.
Time is running out and no more delays are acceptable.
