Chemical Weapons Are Killing Children In Sudan, New Report Claims
A new report from Amnesty International says that scores of children are among those killed by chemical weapons in Darfur since January.
Scores of children were among those killed by chemical weapons used by Sudan's government in the Darfur region over the last nine months, an Amnesty International report alleges.
Amnesty International
The report, which has been dismissed by the Sudanese government, determines that as many as 250 people — many of them children — have died after being exposed to chemical weapons in the remote Jebel Marra area since January.
The region has seen ceaseless fighting since 2003, when civil war erupted between the government in Khartoum and a number of rebel groups. The conflict escalated into war — as many as 300,000 may have died between the start of the fighting and 2008, the United Nations estimated at the time. In the same year, Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir was indicted for war crimes at the International Criminal Court. However, he is yet to face justice and continues to travel freely on the African continent.
Amnesty International's report, using satellite images and interviews from survivors over an eight-month period, also alleges that mass rapes, extrajudicial killings, and "scorched earth" tactics were were carried out by government troops in Darfur.
1. Chemical weapons are being used against civilians.
Internally displaced children in a Darfur camp in December, 2015.
Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah / Reuters