The US will impose new sanctions on Sudan after finding it used chemical weapons last year in the ongoing civil war against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the state department has said.
US exports to the country will be restricted and financial borrowing limits put in place from 6 June, a statement from spokesperson Tammy Bruce read.
A Sudanese government spokesperson described the accusations as “baseless claims with no supporting evidence”.
Both the Sudanese military and the paramilitary group the RSF have previously been accused of war crimes during the conflict, which they have denied.
More than 150,000 people have been killed during the conflict, which began two years ago when Sudan’s army and the RSF began a vicious struggle for power.
In recent months, Sudan’s military has recaptured the capital of Khartoum, but fighting continues elsewhere.
No detail was provided about which chemical weapons the US said it found, but the New York Times reported in January that Sudan used chlorine gas on two occasions, which causes a range of painful and damaging effects and can be fatal.
This was said to have been in remote areas which were not named. No visual evidence has been shared so far as proof of the weapons having been used in the current war in Sudan.
“The United States calls on the government of Sudan to cease all chemical weapons use and uphold its obligations under the CWC,” the statement read, referring to the Chemical Weapons Convention under which signatories have committed to destroy their stockpiles of the weapons.
In a strongly worded statement, Sudan’s Culture and Information Minister Khalid Al-Ayesir described the US’s actions as “political blackmail”, adding that they further eroded US “credibility” and eliminated “any remaining influence it may have in Sudan”.
He said it was a “fabricated narrative… to mislead international opinion and offer political cover to illegitimate actors complicit in crimes against the Sudanese people”.
He said the US had previously made “false claims” about chemical weapons in Sudan, pointing to the 1998 Al-Shifa attack, when the US bombed a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory.
At the time the US had alleged the factory was being used as a site to manufacture chemical weapons and was linked to Osama Bin-Laden’s network, which Sudan strongly denied.
After the bombing, the US lifted a decision to freeze the assets of the factory owner, which was viewed at the time as an implicit acknowledgment that there was not sufficient evidence to justify the bombing.
Nearly every country in the world – including Sudan – has agreed to the CWC, apart from Egypt, North Korea and South Sudan according to the Arms Control Association, a US-based non-partisan membership organisation. Israel has signed the agreement but not ratified its signature, meaning it has not legally confirmed its involvement in the treaty, the ACA adds.
“The United States remains fully committed to hold to account those responsible for contributing to chemical weapons proliferation,” Bruce added.
This is not the first time the US has imposed sanctions in Sudan. In January, they were issued against leaders of both parties embroiled in the conflict.
Sudan’s military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan was accused of “destabilising Sudan and undermining the goal of a democratic transition” by the US, which the country’s foreign ministry condemned as “strange and troubling”.
Meanwhile, the head of the RSF Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, also known as Hemedti, was determined to have perpetrated genocide in the country by former secretary of state Antony Blinken. The RSF has denied these charges.
The rival forces have been struggling for power for the past two years, displacing around 12 million people and leaving 25 million needing food aid, more than double the population of London.
New sanctions will have little effect on the country as a result of these prior measures, according to the AFP news agency.
This latest US move comes amid tensions over the alleged involvement of the United Arab Emirates in the conflict. The UAE and Sudan had maintained diplomatic ties until earlier this month when the Sudanese government alleged the UAE provided arms to the RSF, an allegation the UAE denies.
Following US President Donald Trump’s warm reception in the Gulf state last week, Democrats in Congress sought to block the sale of arms from the US to the UAE in part due to its alleged involvement in the conflict.
A Sudanese diplomatic source told news agency Reuters that the US had imposed the new sanctions “to distract from the recent campaign in Congress against the UAE”.
Earlier this month, a top UN court rejected Sudan’s bid to sue the UAE for genocide.
Additional reporting by Anne Soy, and Peter Mwai from BBC Verify
