The United States on Monday imposed a fresh round of sanctions on Sudan’s government, accusing it of deploying chemical weapons during its conflict with the rival Rapid Support Forces.
Although Washington has not disclosed specific details of the alleged attacks, international media reports have linked the accusations to the reported use of chlorine gas barrels in 2024.
The conflict between Sudan’s military and the RSF, which erupted in April 2023, has been marked by widespread allegations of war crimes. The US has already sanctioned several RSF commanders over accusations of genocide in the Darfur region.
Fresh sanctions
The US State Department had announced the latest measures last month after concluding that “the Government of Sudan used chemical weapons in 2024”, an act it said violated the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Sudan ratified in 1999.
While the US has not revealed where or when the alleged attacks took place, the new sanctions, which took effect on Monday, further restrict Sudan’s access to US financing and exports.
They also prohibit Sudan-owned airlines from operating within US airspace.
Sudan’s military-backed government has consistently rejected the accusations, describing them as “baseless” and “political blackmail”.
Allegations of chemical weapons use
Reports by the New York Times and France 24 last year alleged that Sudan’s military used chemical weapons on at least two occasions during the conflict.
The New York Times, citing four anonymous senior US officials, reported that chlorine was the chemical agent used and alleged it was deployed with the approval of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
France 24, in an investigation published in October, reported that two barrels containing chlorine gas were dropped by aircraft in September 2024 around the al-Jaili oil refinery, north of Khartoum.
The report said its findings were based on open-source intelligence, social media footage and assessments by five experts, concluding that two chlorine-filled barrels had been dropped from the air.
At the time, the RSF controlled both the surrounding area and Sudan’s largest oil refinery.
Long history of accusations
The Sudanese military, which has dominated the country’s politics for much of the period since independence in 1956, has faced previous accusations of using chemical weapons.
In 2016, Amnesty International alleged that the army, then allied with the RSF, carried out chemical attacks against civilians in Darfur. Sudan’s government denied the claims.
Earlier, in 1998, the US accused the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum of producing chemical components for Al-Qaeda before destroying the facility in a missile strike.
US sanctions over the years
Relations between Washington and Khartoum deteriorated during the rule of Omar al-Bashir, whose Islamist-backed government was repeatedly accused of supporting Al-Qaeda.
Sanctions first imposed in the early 1990s were expanded in 2006 following allegations of genocide in Darfur, where the Janjaweed militia, considered the predecessor of the RSF, was accused of carrying out atrocities on behalf of the government.
Following Bashir’s removal in a 2019 popular uprising, the US removed Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism and began easing sanctions.
However, some restrictions returned after the 2021 military coup led by Burhan and his then-deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, before the alliance collapsed into full-scale war in April 2023.
By January 2025, Washington had sanctioned both Burhan and Daglo, widely known as Hemeti.
Humanitarian concerns
Analysts say ordinary Sudanese have historically suffered the greatest consequences of sanctions, while both Burhan and Hemeti maintained extensive financial networks despite years of international restrictions.
The United Nations now describes Sudan as the site of the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with nearly 20 million people facing acute food insecurity.
Aid organisations estimate that the war has claimed more than 200,000 lives and subjected civilians to widespread atrocities.
The United States has repeatedly attempted to mediate the conflict. It jointly hosted peace negotiations with Saudi Arabia during the early stages of the war, but the talks failed to produce a ceasefire.
More recently, Washington sought to secure a three-month humanitarian truce, but was unable to bring either side to negotiations.
Both the Sudanese military and the RSF are widely viewed as pursuing a military victory, even as the conflict remains largely deadlocked.
