Amnesty accuses Sudanese forces of war crimes in Darfur

Amnesty International has accused Sudanese government forces of killing civilians, including children, in suspected chemical weapons attacks in Darfur.

According to the 100-page report, around 30 attacks were carried out by Sudanese forces on several villages against rebels in Darfur’s Jebel Marra region between January and September where “between 200 and 250 people may have died as a result of exposure to the chemical weapons agents, with many or most being children” .

The attacks were part of a military operation against the rebel group the Sudan Liberation Army – Abdul Wahid (SLA/AW) group, which Khartoum accused of ambushing military convoys and attacking civilians.

The report described “horrific evidence” acquired of repeated use of chemical weapons against civilians, including infants “by Sudanese government forces in one of the most remote regions of Darfur over the past eight months”.

Amnesty also accused forces of “indiscriminate bombing of civilians… unlawful killing of men, women and children and the abduction and rape of women” in Jebel Marra.

“The evidence we have gathered is credible and portrays a regime that is intent on directing attacks against the civilian population in Darfur without any fear of international retribution,” Amnesty’s Crisis Research Director Tirana Hassan said in a statement.

Sudan’s military rejected the allegations stating that the report is incorrect “because the situation on the ground does not need intensive bombing as there is no real presence of rebels anymore,” army spokesman Brigadier Ahmed Khalifa Al-Shami said.

“There is also a clear order to our troops not to target rebels if they happen to be in villages or in areas inhabited by civilians,” he explained.

Darfur has been locked in a deadly conflict since 2003 when ethnic minority groups took up arms against President Omar Al-Bashir’s Arab-dominated government, which launched a counter-insurgency.

According to the UN at least 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced as a result of the conflict.