Sudan may have used chemical weapons in Darfur, Amnesty says

Sudanese government forces may have used chemical weapons against civilians in the western region of Darfur in the past eight months, killing as many as 250 people, Amnesty International said.

The London-based advocacy group said Thursday it has gathered “credible evidence” of at least 30 likely chemical attacks in Darfur’s Jebel Marra region between January and September. Many of the people that may have died due to exposure to the weapons were children, it said in a statement, citing testimonies from caregivers and survivors. Sudanese Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman didn’t answer three phone calls seeking comment.

“The scale and brutality of these attacks is hard to put into words,” said Tirana Hassan, Amnesty’s director of crisis research. Two independent chemical-weapons experts consulted by Amnesty said the findings “strongly suggested exposure to vesicants, or blister agents, such as the chemical warfare agents sulfur mustard, lewisite or nitrogen mustard,” the group said.

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