ABU DHABI (ALETIHAD)
The Sudanese military developed and used chemical weapons during the civil war against rival armed forces, according to a report by The New York Times.
The Sudan Army reportedly used chlorine during its conflict with the Rapid Support Forces in 2024, investigation by the Times revealed.
Production of the deadly gas for military purposes continued for six months of that year and the Sudan military targeted the RSF during fighting as it battled to hold on to its positions.
The Times reported that nearly 150 documents, images, videos, voice notes, as well as several thousand text messages, proved that the Sudanese army was involved in the atrocity and subsequent cover-up.
The evidence “appears to have come from the cellphones of senior Sudanese officers,” the report said. Chlorine canisters were also recovered from a water treatment plant in the war-torn capital Khartoum that point to the involvement of the Sudanese army under Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
A secretive Sudanese military unit led by Brig. Gen. Tariq Hussain produced the chlorine-based munitions for use against the RSF, the report said.
General Hussain’s plan was to weaponise the deadly gas to “gain an edge in the battle for Khartoum,” the Times reported after gleaning evidence from an intercepted message.
The Sudanese general also shared sketches of prototypes of a new munition that, he said, “combined an explosive warhead with about 33 pounds of chlorine gas”.
This munition could kill enemy forces by either “shredding them with shrapnel or gassing them with chlorine”. The explosion that followed would ensure that no chemical trace of the attack remained.
The dossier revealed that General Hussain “oversaw a factory that assembled prototypes of this munition”. The weapon was later tested 200km north of Khartoum.
General Hussain also released a video of the test explosion, with a note. “It fell on the target and released the gas”, he is purported to have said. The investigation revealed that 20 chlorine cylinders were imported by the regime, which were adequate to make 1,100 bombs.
The Sudanese military, however, manufactured 300 chemical munitions that were stored at the airport in Merowe, and were later used against the RSF
“They drank the gas,” General Hussain texted to a colleague in September 2024, after a chemical attack on RSF troops. “The documents locate the attack at al-Jaili oil refinery, a facility north of Khartoum that the RSF then controlled,” the Times reported.
Evidence of the chemical attacks first appeared in October, in an investigation by France24.
The Sudan army denied the attacks and closed the chemical weapons programme in May 2025, with the US later imposing sanctions on the regime.
General al-Burhan then instructed General Hussain to “remove all traces” of its chemical activities, intercepts showed.
Later, the Sudan military set up a committee to probe the American accusations. The committee included General Hussain, the brains behind the programme.