CAIRO -- Amnesty International on Thursday accused the Sudanese military 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 United Kingdom-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 between January and September 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 [throwing up] blood."
Amnesty estimates that the chemical-weapon use it documented may have killed 200 to 250 people, with many or most being children.
Sudanese Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman didn't answer phone calls seeking comment.
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 United Nations estimates 300,000 people have died in the conflict and 2.7 million have fled their homes.
The suspected chemical assaults came during a large-scale military offensive that began in January against the Sudan Liberation Army/Abdul Wahid faction, rebels who Sudan's government say have ambushed army convoys and attacked civilians.
The chemical-weapons agents were said to be in bombs dropped from planes and rockets, according to Amnesty. Hundreds who survived the attacks later developed symptoms including severe gastrointestinal conditions, blistering and rashes, loss of vision and respiratory problems, the group said.
Amnesty also cited satellite imagery showing that 171 villages were destroyed or damaged between January and September, the "overwhelming majority" of which, it said, had no formal armed opposition presence.
The attacks were characterized by the systematic bombing and killing of civilians, the abduction and rape of women and forced displacements, according to the group. Amnesty, which interviewed 235 people for its report, called on the U.N. Security Council to urgently investigate the alleged chemical attacks.
"This suspected use of chemical weapons represents not only a new low in the catalog 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," Hassan said.
A recent U.N. report says the Sudanese government continues to violate sanctions imposed by the Security Council over its actions in Darfur.
The report cited 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 that act as proxy forces.
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudan's leader, Omar al-Bashir, in 2009 for crimes against humanity and war crimes; the court added genocide to the charges against him in 2010.
Information for this article was contributed by staff members of The Associated Press and by Samuel Gebre of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 09/30/2016