The Civil Democratic Alliance of Revolutionary Forces, “Somoud,” said it was “deeply concerned” by investigations published by The New York Times and The Washington Post, supported by documents, photographs, videos, and messages, indicating that the Sudanese Armed Forces established a secret program to produce and store munitions loaded with chlorine gas and used them in the war. The reports also indicate that senior military leaders, foremost among them Armed Forces Commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, were directly aware of the program and later participated in efforts to erase evidence of it.
The alliance added that “the two reports contain allegations that chlorine cylinders designated for purifying drinking water, which had arrived through UN programs and international relief organizations to serve civilians, were diverted for military use.”
“Somoud” said the information was “extremely serious, as it documents the production, storage, and use of an internationally prohibited weapon. This cannot be treated as a matter of political debate, and denial is of no benefit in confronting such allegations. The use of chemical weapons constitutes a war crime and a flagrant violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention. Turning materials intended to save lives into tools for killing represents a compounded crime against the Sudanese people and a major breach of international humanitarian law.”
The alliance called on the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to urgently launch an independent and transparent technical investigation, while ensuring that its experts have unrestricted access to sites, documents, and witnesses, and to determine responsibility as a step toward holding accountable anyone proven to have been involved.
“Somoud” reiterated the need for an immediate end to the war, the protection of civilians, the opening of humanitarian corridors, and accountability for all perpetrators of crimes without selectivity, with the aim of achieving a just and sustainable peace and a democratic civilian transition that brings an end to the cycle of war, authoritarianism, and impunity.
