Paris (AFP) – A media report published Thursday said that the Sudanese army, which has been fighting the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023, used chlorine gas in two attacks north of the capital Khartoum in 2024.
The United States imposed sanctions last June on Sudan’s army-backed government over the Sudanese army’s use of chemical weapons last year in the country’s bloody civil war. However, Washington did not specify when or where those weapons had been used.
An investigation by France 24 revealed that the army dropped two chlorine barrels in September 2024 near the Al-Jaili oil refinery, north of Khartoum.
At the time, the RSF controlled the area, which included Sudan’s largest oil facility.
Human Rights Watch described the incident as “a troubling precedent,” stressing that “the use of an industrial chemical as a weapon is alarming.”
The Sudanese government has consistently denied the U.S. accusations, calling them “baseless” and describing them as “political blackmail.”
Last month, it said that an internal investigation had found “no evidence” of chemical contamination in Khartoum State.
France 24 said it relied on open-source data, social media footage, and the assessments of five experts to confirm the use of chlorine gas.
The channel verified videos showing an industrial chlorine barrel apparently dropped from an aircraft on September 5, 2024, over the Qurei military base near Al-Jaili, producing a yellow cloud of chlorine gas.
According to the report, the barrel originated from an Indian company that had exported it to Port Sudan in August 2024. The company told the French broadcaster that it was supposed to be used “exclusively for drinking water treatment.”
France 24 also verified reports of a second chlorine barrel dropped from an aircraft on September 13, 2024, targeting the Al-Jaili refinery.
Since April 2023, the war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions, and caused widespread hunger and flight — a crisis the United Nations has described as “the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.”
The conflict has also seen numerous atrocities against Sudanese civilians, with both warring parties accused of committing war crimes, including indiscriminate shelling and direct attacks on civilians.
