Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Survivors of alleged chemical attacks have reported their eyes and skin changing colour. Pictured: Children in North Darfur in April

Dozens of children in Darfur have allegedly been killed by chemical weapons dropped on them by their own government, it is claimed.

Amnesty International say the children are among more than 200 people estimated to have been killed by the banned weapons since January.

Those affected by the "poisonous smoke" vomit blood, struggle to breathe and watch as their skin falls off.

The Sudanese government has said the allegations are baseless.

"The allegations of use of chemical weapons by Sudanese Armed Forces is baseless and fabricated," Sudan's UN Ambassador Omer Dahab Fadl Mohamed said, quoted by Reuters.

"The ultimate objective of such wild accusation, is to steer confusion in the ongoing processes aimed at deepening peace and stability and enhancing economic development and social cohesion in Sudan."

The government in Khartoum and rebels have been fighting in Darfur for 13 years.

Yet the conflict and its toll on the western region's citizens has fallen off the radar since 2004, when warnings of a potential genocide forced the outside world to act.

But a new report into repeated attacks by the Sudanese government against their own people reveals "nothing has changed", according to Tirana Hassan, Amnesty's director of crisis research.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Amnesty International's Kate Allen explains the evidence for the chemical weapons claim

'Brutality'

The human rights group's eight-month investigation uncovered "scorched earth, mass rapes, killings and bombs" in Jebel Marra, a remote region of Darfur.

Researchers also found 56 witnesses to the alleged use of chemical weapons on at least 30 occasions by Sudanese forces, who launched an offensive against the Sudan Liberation Army, led by Abdul Wahid (SLA/AW) in the middle of January.

"The scale and brutality of these attacks is hard to put into words," said Ms Hassan. "The images and videos we have seen in the course of our research are truly shocking; in one a young child is screaming with pain before dying; many photos show young children covered in lesions and blisters. Some were unable to breathe and vomiting blood."

Image copyright Amnesty International Image caption A child's arm shows off circular wounds consistent with chemical poisoning

Survivors told Amnesty International of the putrid and "unnatural" smelling smoke which filled the air after the bombs were dropped.

Many began vomiting within minutes of coming into contact with it. Often, the vomiting and diarrhoea would be bloody, while others were left with "bulging" eyes.

Survivors' eyes were also reported to change colour, as did their urine and their skin, which would then harden and fall off.

A man named Ismail, who tried to help people in late January, told Amnesty: "Their skin was falling off and their bodies had become rotten… and their breath was very bad".

Several of the children he treated died, others were still in pain months later.

Image caption Jebel Marra is one of the most fertile areas of Darfur

Two independent chemical weapons experts agreed the injuries seen were consistent with a chemical attack, with symptoms pointing to vesicant or blister agents.

Amnesty is now calling for an investigation, and for governments to apply pressure on Khartoum, in particular to allow humanitarian agencies access to Darfur's remote populations.

Ms Hassan said: "The fact that Sudan's government is now repeatedly using these weapons against their own people simply cannot be ignored and demands action.

"This suspected use of chemical weapons represents not only a new low in the catalogue of crimes under international law by the Sudanese military against civilians in Darfur, but also a new level of hubris by the government towards the international community."</s>UNITED NATIONS -- Rights group Amnesty International on Thursday accused Sudanese government forces of killing scores of civilians, including many children, in suspected chemical weapons attacks in a mountainous area of war-torn Darfur.

More than 30 such attacks are believed to have been carried out on several villages as part of a massive military campaign against rebels in Darfur's Jebel Marra between January and September, Amnesty said in a report.

"An Amnesty International investigation has gathered horrific evidence of the repeated use of what are believed to be chemical weapons against civilians, including very young children, by Sudanese government forces in one of the most remote regions of Darfur over the past eight months," Amnesty said.

"Between 200 and 250 people may have died as a result of exposure to the chemical weapons agents, with many or most being children," said the report.

Amnesty said government forces also carried out "indiscriminate bombing of civilians... unlawful killing of men, women and children and the abduction and rape of women" in Jebel Marra, home to Darfur's most fertile land.

The nearly 100-page report contains gruesome photographs of children suffering from chemical burns, satellite images of destroyed villages and displaced people, interviews with more than 200 survivors, and analysis by chemical weapons experts.

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

Amnesty's crisis research director Tirana Hassan said tens of thousands of people had been driven from their homes since the air and ground campaign began in January in Jebel Marra -- the homeland of the ethnic Fur tribe.

"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," she said in a statement.

Amnesty said the attacks amount to "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity".

Sudan, which was slapped with US trade sanctions in 1997 and has a UN peacekeeping mission deployed in Darfur since 2007, is a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Darfur has been engulfed in a deadly conflict since 2003 when ethnic minority groups took up arms against President Omar al-Bashir's Arab-dominated government.

Bashir then launched a brutal counter-insurgency that has ravaged Darfur -- a region of the size of France.

At least 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced, the United Nations says.

Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes and genocide charges related to Darfur, which he denies.

In recent months Sudan has insisted that the conflict in Darfur has ended, but Khartoum continues to restrict access to the region for journalists and humanitarian workers.</s>The rights group estimated that up to 250 people may have died as a result of exposure to the chemical weapons agents.

The most recent attack occurred on Sept. 9 and Amnesty said its investigation was based on satellite imagery, more than 200 interviews and expert analysis of images showing injuries.

"The use of chemical weapons is a war crime. 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," said Tirana Hassan, Amnesty International's director of Crisis Research.

Sudanese U.N. Ambassador Omer Dahab Fadl Mohamed said in a statement that the Amnesty report was "utterly unfounded" and that Sudan does not possess any type of chemical weapons.

"The allegations of use of chemical weapons by Sudanese Armed Forces is baseless and fabricated. The ultimate objective of such wild accusation, is to steer confusion in the on-going processes aimed at deepening peace and stability and enhancing economic development and social cohesion in Sudan," he said.

Amnesty said it had presented its findings to two independent chemical weapons experts.

"Both concluded that the evidence strongly suggested exposure to vesicants, or blister agents, such as the chemical warfare agents sulfur mustard, lewisite or nitrogen mustard," Amnesty said in a statement.

Sudan joined the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1999 under which members agree to never use toxic arms.

A joint African Union-United Nations force, known as UNAMID, has been stationed in Darfur since 2007. Security remains fragile in Darfur, where mainly non-Arab tribes have been fighting the Arab-led government in Khartoum, and the government is struggling to control rural areas.

Some 300,000 people have been killed in Darfur since the conflict began in 2003, the U.N. says, while 4.4 million people need aid and over 2.5 million have been displaced.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in 2009 and 2010 on charges of war crimes and genocide in his drive to crush the Darfur revolt.</s>Internally displaced persons are shown in a camp in Sortoni, in Sudan's North Darfur state. By (UNAMID/AFP/File)

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Rights group Amnesty International has accused Sudanese government forces of killing scores of civilians, including many children, in suspected chemical weapons attacks in a mountainous area of war-torn Darfur.

More than 30 such attacks are believed to have been carried out on several villages as part of a massive military campaign against rebels in Darfur's Jebel Marra between January and September, Amnesty said in a report.

"An Amnesty International investigation has gathered horrific evidence of the repeated use of what are believed to be chemical weapons against civilians, including very young children, by Sudanese government forces in one of the most remote regions of Darfur over the past eight months," Amnesty said.

"Between 200 and 250 people may have died as a result of exposure to the chemical weapons agents, with many or most being children," said the report.

Amnesty said government forces also carried out "indiscriminate bombing of civilians... unlawful killing of men, women and children and the abduction and rape of women" in Jebel Marra, home to Darfur's most fertile land.

The nearly 100-page report contains gruesome photographs of children suffering from chemical burns, satellite images of destroyed villages and displaced people, interviews with more than 200 survivors, and analysis by chemical weapons experts.

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

Amnesty's crisis research director Tirana Hassan said tens of thousands of people had been driven from their homes since the air and ground campaign began in January in Jebel Marra -- the homeland of the ethnic Fur tribe.

"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," she said in a statement.

Amnesty said the attacks amount to "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity".

Sudan, which was slapped with US trade sanctions in 1997 and has a UN peacekeeping mission deployed in Darfur since 2007, is a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Darfur has been engulfed in a deadly conflict since 2003 when ethnic minority groups took up arms against President Omar al-Bashir's Arab-dominated government.

Bashir then launched a brutal counter-insurgency that has ravaged Darfur -- a region of the size of France.

At least 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced, the United Nations says.

Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes and genocide charges related to Darfur, which he denies.

In recent months Sudan has insisted that the conflict in Darfur has ended, but Khartoum continues to restrict access to the region for journalists and humanitarian workers.

Amnesty said there was "credible evidence" that at least 32 villages in Jebel Marra were attacked with bombs and rockets containing chemicals.

"Many photos show young children covered in lesions and blisters. Some were unable to breath and vomiting blood," Hassan said.

She added that there had been "horrific burns and skin reactions to the agents... and some of the first responders and caregivers have told us that even when they touch the skin, it actually falls off in large chunks."

The symptoms varied between attacks, suggesting that more than one type of chemical was used, chemical weapons expert Jennifer Knaack said in a video released by Amnesty.

The rights group said experts had concluded the victims were exposed to vesicants, or blister agents, such as sulfur mustard, lewisite or nitrogen mustard.

Dozens of survivors suffered various illnesses for days after being exposed to chemicals, the report said.

"When (the bomb) fell there were some flames and then dark smoke," said a woman who survived an attack with her baby.

She said the bombing had caused vomiting, dizziness, skin problems and headaches.

"The baby is not recovering ... he is swollen ... he has blisters and wounds."

Amnesty urged Sudan -- which wants international peacekeepers to leave Darfur -- to allow humanitarian workers and UN forces immediate access to Jebel Marra.

Darfur "has been stuck in a catastrophic cycle of violence for more than 13 years. Nothing has changed except that the world has stopped watching," Hassan said.</s>(CNN) The Sudanese government has been accused of using chemical weapons against the people of Darfur, according to a report released by Amnesty International on Thursday.

The attacks targeted civilians and may constitute a war crime, the report said. The Sudanese government has denied the allegations, calling them "rumors."

Amnesty says it has new evidence abuses persist in a war that has been described as one of the world's worst humanitarian conflicts by the United Nations.

Unidentified witnesses quoted in the Amnesty report said the attacks left a smoke, which turned dark blue and smelled "like rotten eggs," coating the trees, ground, and humans in a thick black dust.

After exposure to the smoke, some said their skin turned white and became rotten or hardened and fell off in chunks.

"When the bomb exploded I inhaled the poisonous air which I am still smelling even now," said one witness.

Some children vomited blood, the report said. Another witness said: "My youngest child was walking before the attack. Now she is only crawling."

Pictures obtained by Amnesty International show graphic images of children with large welts, peeling skin, and infected lesions.

The alleged use of chemical weapons came during a large-scale offensive by the Sudanese forces and its allied groups against an armed opposition group, the Sudan Liberation Army-Abdul Wahid (SLA-AW), which operates in the Jebel Marra region.

The Sudanese government accused the group of looting and attacking civilians and military vehicles prior to the January offensive.

Since the Sudanese military campaign began in January, Amnesty International says up to 250 people have been killed by chemical weapons.

The report alleges the Sudanese forces targeted civilians: "The overwhelming majority of the attacked villages had no formal armed opposition presence at the time of the attacks. The purpose...appears to have been to target the entire population of the village."

Chemical attacks in some regions have been taking place for eight months, including just weeks before the report's release.

The Sudanese government has denied allegations it had used chemical weapons against civilians, calling them "rumors."

"I don't know from where these rumors are being said," Sudan's Information Minister Ahmed Bilal told CNN.

Bilal acknowledged a government offensive in Jebel Marra had taken place, saying it was in response to rebel activity.

"It was started by them," Bilal said. "The rebels were doing some sort of looting, they were attacking innocent people. This has stopped. There is not an inch occupied by rebels," Bilal said.

"The whole Darfur is quite in peace and the people are very happy," he said.

Likely more than one chemical

Journalists and humanitarians have been prohibited from entering Jebel Marra for more than four years, making reporting extremely difficult from the region.

Amnesty International had to do all reporting remotely. Collecting soil samples for confirmation was impossible.

Two chemical weapons experts reviewed photographic and video evidence and both found the symptoms consistent with chemical agents such as sulfur mustard, lewisite and nitrogen mustard -- or a combination.

"The symptoms varied between the attacks and this tells me there were likely more than one chemical in use as well as the possibility that the chemicals were mixed or that different chemicals were used at different times for different attacks," said Dr. Jennifer Knaack, one of the weapons experts involved in the study.

The writer of the report, a senior Amnesty adviser, Jonathan Loeb calls it "by far the most substantial, credible release of evidence of the use of chemical weapons in Darfur since the conflict began."

The conflict in Darfur began around 2003 when several rebel groups in Darfur took up arms against the government in Khartoum. They had grievances over land and historical marginalization.

In response, the government's counterinsurgency strategy targeted the opposition groups but reportedly expanded to target tribes associated with the insurgents.

The violence escalated into a war and the in 2008, the UN estimated that 300,000 people may have died in the Darfur conflict, although experts say that figure has likely risen since then.

Sudan's President, Omar al-Bashir, was charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, including genocide, related to the Darfur conflict in 2010.

Bashir has yet to cooperate with the court and continues to travel freely around the continent. South Africa and Uganda have both been criticized for allowing President Bashir to travel to their countries without being turned over to the ICC.</s>Internally displaced persons in Sortoni, in Sudan's North Darfur state, who fled their homes following ongoing clashes between armed movements and government forces in the Jebel Marra. AFP PHOTO | UNAMID

The Khartoum government has been using chemical weapons on innocent civilians, including children, in Darfur in its war against rebels, rights group Amnesty International has said.

Amnesty says it has gathered evidence of the repeated use of suspected chemical weapons by the Sudanese government forces in Jebel Marra, one of the remote mountainous regions of Darfur over the past eight months.

However, the Sudan embassy in Nairobi, has refuted the claims saying that they are fabricated and part of efforts by international human rights and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to constantly paint the Sudanese government in bad light.

Using satellite imagery, more than 200 in-depth interviews with survivors, and expert analysis of dozens of images showing babies and young children with terrible injuries, Amnesty International says its investigation indicates that at least 30 likely chemical attacks have taken place in the Jebel Marra since January 2016, with the most recent being September 9.

“The scale and brutality of these attacks is hard to put into words. The images and videos we have seen in the course of our research are truly shocking; in one a young child is screaming with pain before dying; many photos show young children covered in lesions and blisters. Some were unable to breath and vomiting blood,” said Tirana Hassan, Amnesty International’s Director of Crisis Research.

She continued: “It is hard to describe just how cruel the effects of these chemicals are when they come into contact with the human body. Chemical weapons have been banned for decades in recognition of the fact that the level of suffering they cause can never be justified. The fact that Sudan’s government is now repeatedly using them against their own people simply cannot be ignored and demands action.”

However, Elsadig Abdalla Elias, the Sudanese Ambassador to Kenya, told The EastAfrican that the claims were built on bogus and fabricated evidence because Sudan has signed all international treaties which forbid using the chemical weapons.

Mr Elias said that a number of international envoys have visited Sudan recently, including British and US special envoys who went Darfur twice and they did not raise the issue of use of chemical weapons.

Moreover, Mr Elias said that there are many UN organisations, international and regional NGOs working in Darfur, including thousands of joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping troops (UNAMID) but none had mentioned anything about chemical weapons.

“Since this organisation have no base in Sudan and all the evidences were just collected through hearsay, it is therefore obvious that this report has no credibility at all,” said Mr Elias, who added that Amnesty International has no physical presence in South Sudan.

Amnesty report says that hundreds more survived the attacks but in the hours and days after exposure to the chemicals, they developed symptoms including severe gastrointestinal conditions involving vomiting blood and diarrhoea; blistering and rashes on skin which reportedly hardened, changed colour and fell off; eye problems including complete loss of vision; and respiratory problems which were reported to be the most common cause of death.</s>The Sudanese government has been accused of launching chemical weapon attacks on its own civilians, killing hundreds of people including scores of children, in what would be a dramatic escalation of the Darfur conflict.

Amnesty International says it has compiled the first credible body of evidence to suggest the forces of President Omar al-Bashir bombed swathes of the crisis-hit Jebel Marra region with chemical agents.

The charity has released before-and-after satellite images, photographs of horrific burn wounds on children and evidence from more than 200 interviews, and called for a United Nations investigation.

Chemical weapons attacks on the African continent in the post-war era have been extremely rare, and even the accusation that it has carried them out could represent a major setback for Sudan’s improving relations with the international community.

But it also serves to highlight the ongoing armed conflict in Darfur that, since the peak of the violence and international attention in 2003, has continued to rage more or less unnoticed.

With the exception of Egypt and South Sudan, all African states have signed the Chemical Weapons Convention committing them to destroy any stockpiles.

Using chemical weapons for anything other than a specific set of military goals, let alone on civilians, is a war crime.

Yet between January and the most recent alleged incident earlier this month, Amnesty International says it has recorded at least 30 likely chemical weapons attacks on Darfur civilian populations.

Those attacks alone have killed around 200 to 250 people, the charity said, with many – possibly even the majority – being children. Countless others have suffered the effects of what appear to be chemical agents, and some described their symptoms to Amnesty over the course of its investigation.

“Several bombs fell around the village and in the hills,” a mother in her thirties from the village of Burro told the charity. “Most of my kids are sick from the smoke of the bombardment. They got sick on the day of the attack. They vomited and they had diarrhoea, they were coughing a lot [and] their skin turned dark like it was burned.”

“This is first documented, substantial evidence of chemical weapons use inside the Darfur region,” the report author Jonathan Loeb told The Independent.

“We spoke with scores of survivors and people who cared for them about these alleged chemical weapons attacks, and they all said that the alleged chemical was released by bombs or rocket fire.

These bombs and rockets unequivocally came from Sudanese government forces, that we know beyond doubt. There are no other armed actors in the area with any air force [capable of these attacks].”

Amnesty International said it had shared all of its video, photographic and testimonial evidence with two independent chemical weapons experts, and said both concluded that the injuries shown could not have been produced by conventional weapons.

The charity is calling on the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to undertake an investigation into its allegations. Only an on-the-ground probe with access to soil samples, urine samples and weapons fragments can conclusively confirm a chemical weapons attack took place.

“The scale and brutality of these attacks is hard to put into words,” said Tirana Hassan, Amnesty’s director of crisis research. “The images and videos we have seen in the course of our research are truly shocking; in one a young child is screaming with pain before dying; many photos show young children covered in lesions and blisters. Some were unable to breath and vomiting blood.

“The fact that Sudan’s government is now repeatedly using these weapons against their own people simply cannot be ignored and demands action.”

The Bashir government has blocked all access to the Jebel Marra region of Darfur, including to humanitarian groups and even the UN peacekeeping force which is operating elsewhere in the country.

But Amnesty said satellite images showed 171 villages had been destroyed or damaged in the last eight months alone, part of a large-scale military offensive launched in January against the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), which the government accuses of ambushing military convoys and attacking civilians.

Sudan is currently subject to an arms embargo in relation to human rights abuses in the Darfur region. Yet a report by a UN monitoring panel this week found the government continues to violate the sanctions imposed on it, leading Human Rights Watch to declare the measures “now exist in name only”.

The Sudanese government did not respond to The Independent’s request for comment on Amnesty’s report.

But in a rare international media interview earlier this year, President Bashir denied any abuses had taken place in the mountains of Jebel Marra since the start of the government offensive.

He told the BBC: “All these allegations are baseless, none of these reports is true.

“We challenge anyone to visit the areas recaptured by the armed forces, and find a single village that has been torched.

“In fact, there hasn't been any aerial bombing,” he said.</s>CAIRO -- The human rights group Amnesty International says it has gathered "horrific evidence" that the Sudanese military has used chemical weapons against civilians, including very young children, in one of the most remote corners of the Darfur region over the past eight months.

In a report released Thursday, the Britain-based organization says its investigation includes satellite imagery, more than 200 in-depth interviews with survivors and expert analysis of dozens of images that suggest that at least 30 likely chemical attacks took place in the Jebel Marra area.

Darfur has been gripped by bloodshed since 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government in Khartoum, accusing it of discrimination and neglect. The U.N. estimates 300,000 people have died in the conflict and 2.7 million have fled their homes.</s>Sudanese government forces have used chemical weapons repeatedly against civilians, including babies and young children, in one of the most remote regions of Darfur over the past eight months, according to allegations documented by Amnesty International.

The alleged chemical attacks, believed to have killed up to 250 people, mostly children, represent a “new low” in the catalogue of serious abuses perpetrated by government forces in the region, said the human rights group.

The most recent of the alleged offensives recorded by the investigation occurred on 9 September. The attacks are ongoing, said Amnesty.

Using satellite images, more than 200 in-depth interviews by phone or internet, and expert analysis of dozens of distressing images showing babies and children with flayed and bloody skin, the investigation claims that at least 30 chemical attacks have taken place in the Jebel Marra area of Darfur since January 2016.

Amnesty denounced what it called indiscriminate attacks on civilians by government troops as a war crime.

A spokesman for the Sudanese government denied any chemical weapon attacks had taken place. Dr Khalid al-Mubarak, the media attache at the Sudan embassy in London, said that fighting in the Jebel Marra district was the result of government troops trying to attack forces loyal to Abdul Wahid al-Nour, leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement.

“There were no chemical attacks,” said al-Mubarak. Jebel Marra was the only spot in which there was any trouble. Now the government has full control. There is now a civilian police station and the administration in Darfur is not returning to Jebel Marra.

“Amnesty International has this information second hand. They have talked to people selectively.”

Asked about allegations that up to 250 people have died as a result of the attacks, he said: “Have they counted them? They have not. No chemical attacks happened.”

But Tirana Hassan, Amnesty International’s director of crisis research, said: “The scale and brutality of these attacks is hard to put into words. The images and videos we have seen in the course of our research are truly shocking; in one, a young child is screaming with pain before dying. Many photos show young children covered in lesions and blisters. Some were unable to breathe and [were] vomiting blood.

“It is hard to exaggerate just how cruel the effects of these chemicals are when they come into contact with the human body. Chemical weapons have been banned for decades in recognition of the fact that the level of suffering they cause can never be justified. That Sudan’s government is now repeatedly using them against their own people simply cannot be ignored and demands action.”

The report alleged that hundreds of survivors suffered symptoms including severe gastrointestinal conditions, bloody vomiting and diarrhoea, blistering and rashes on skin that was later lost, eye problems – including a complete loss of vision – and respiratory problems, reportedly the most common cause of death.



A woman in her twenties, injured by shrapnel when a bomb that emitted a toxic cloud of smoke fell on her village, said she and her baby became sick and are still suffering six months later.

“When [the bomb] landed there were some flames and then dark smoke,” she said. “Immediately it caused vomiting and dizzying … My skin is not normal. I still have headaches, even after I took the medicine … The baby is not recovering … he is swollen … he has blisters and wounds … they said he would get better … but it is not working.”

One man who helped to care for people apparently affected by chemicals said 19 people he cared for, including children, died within a month of exposure. He told Amnesty he had been helping to care for victims of the conflict in Jebel Marra since it began in 2003, and had never seen such ailments before. All those who died experienced major changes to the skin, he added. About half sustained wounds that turned green; the other half were affected by skin loss and weeping blisters.

Amnesty said they were told the bombs were dropped from planes and rockets. Most of the 200 survivors they spoke to reported that the smoke from the weapons changed colour between five and 20 minutes after impact. Witnesses said it started very dark and then became lighter. Every survivor said the smoke smelled noxious. Using satellite imagery, the report concluded that up to 171 villages were destroyed or damaged as a result of the eight-month campaign.

Two chemical weapons experts independently shown photographs, videos and witness testimony found “credible evidence” that chemical weapons agents were used in the attacks.Both concluded the clinical signs and symptoms they had seen and heard were consistent with a class of weapon known as blister agents, or vesicants, which includes sulphur mustard, nitrogen mustard and lewisite.

In a video interview, published alongside the report, Dr Keith Ward, an independent chemical weapons expert, said: “The pictures in conjunction with the eyewitness accounts, and in conjunction with a large constellation of clinical signs and symptoms of these victims, do give us enough information to make us very certain that chemicals of some sort were involved in this attack.

“We are certain that the kinds of injuries that we’ve seen and the explanation for … what people saw at the source of the attack could not be explained simply as a result of the explosive effect of conventional or incendiary munitions.”

The report was a collaboration between Amnesty and Situ Research, an interdisciplinary studio that brings together geospatial information, satellite imagery, photographs and interviews.

Many victims told Amnesty they had no access to medicine and were being treated only with a combination of salt, limes and local herbs.



“The use of chemical weapons is a war crime” said Hassan. “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 International has called on the UN security council to urgently investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons, ensure the arms embargo is implemented and apply political pressure on the Sudanese government to so that peacekeepers and humanitarian groups are allowed access to remote regions like Jebel Marra.

Jebel Marra, in the centre of Darfur, is a volcanic massif with an estimated 1,500 towns, villages and hamlets. The UN Mission in Darfur, a joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force, is present in the region but is unable to provide protection to any civilians against attacks in Jebel Marra beyond its northern base in Sortoni, the report said.



The alleged attacks on villages in Jebel Marra were perpetrated by government soldiers and allied militias known as Janjaweed, according to witnesses, some of whom provided the names of officials in charge. Other government forces allegedly included the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces.

Amnesty said it was forced to conduct its research remotely, due to restrictions on access by the Sudanese government. The group said no journalist, humanitarian rights investigator or other humanitarian group has gained access to areas of Jebel Marra affected by the conflict in 2016.

Survivors and local human rights monitors provided the names of 367 civilians, including 95 children, who were killed in Jebel Marra by government forces in the first six months of the year, the report said.

The report, which said the international community’s response to attacks on Darfur was deplorable, concluded: “The government of Sudan’s ongoing attacks in Jebel Marra – the latest in a series of military operations dating back to 2003 that have ravaged Darfur’s civilian population – are but the most recent illustration of a catastrophic pattern of violence.”

Speaking in advance of the report’s publication, a UN peacekeeping official said no reports had been received of the use of chemical weapons in Jebel Marra. “Despite repeated requests to the government of Sudan, including most recently last week by the joint special representative during his visit to Zalingei in central Darfur, the UN and the mission does not have access to conflict areas in Jebel Marra,” said the official.

“We are aware that the Amnesty International report is scheduled to be released and we would like to study it in detail before commenting.”</s>CAIRO (AP) — Amnesty International accused the Sudanese military today of using chemical weapons against civilians, including very young children, in one of the most remote corners of the Darfur region over the past eight months.

The Britain-based Human rights group said it had gathered "horrific evidence" including satellite imagery, more than 200 in-depth interviews with survivors, and expert analysis of dozens of images in an investigation that suggests at least 30 chemical attacks took place in the Jebel Marra area.

"The scale and brutality of these attacks is hard to put into words," said Tirana Hassan, Amnesty's director of crisis research. "The images and videos we have seen in the course of our research are truly shocking. In one, a young child is screaming with pain before dying; many photos show young children covered in lesions and blisters. Some were unable to breath and vomiting blood."

Amnesty estimates that the chemical weapon use it documented may have killed some 200 to 250 people, with many or most being children.

Darfur has been witness to bloodshed since 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government in Khartoum, accusing it of discrimination and neglect. The U.N. estimates 300,000 people have died in the conflict and 2.7 million have fled their homes.

A recent United Nations report, seen Tuesday by The Associated Press, says the Sudanese government continues to violate sanctions imposed by the Security Council over their actions in Darfur.

The report reported violations of the arms embargo, the use of cluster bombs by the Sudanese government and the illegal transfer of intrusion software with electronic intelligence capability among other things. It also documented numerous human rights violations attributable to the government and the financing of armed groups within the country which act as proxy forces.

Sudan's leader, Omar al-Bashir, is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged atrocities in Darfur. The court issued an arrest warrant for al-Bashir in 2009 for crimes against humanity and war crimes and added genocide to the charges against him in 2010.
Amnesty International say dozens of children in Darfur are among more than 200 people estimated to have been killed by Sudan government chemical weapons since January.