Calls for UN probe into alleged chlorine weapon use in Sudan

The appeal surfaced during a UN Human Rights Council side event organized by the Paris Integration Forum. German lawyer Claudia Wädlich emphasized that Sudan’s 1999 ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention renders any such deployment a grave criminal offense. She demanded that military authorities grant inspectors immediate access to soil, water, and burial sites to verify reports originally brought to light by investigations from The Washington Post and The New York Times. These reports allege a clandestine program involving the stockpiling of 290 chemical munitions at Merowe Air Base, with 106 already deployed.

Bjertnes Carl-Gustav of the organization Seed-Africa warned that such tactics threaten to erode international standards, urging the Sudanese military to accept a non-conditional UN commission. While the Sudanese army maintains the allegations are baseless, the U.S. government has already imposed sanctions under the 1991 Chemical and Biological Weapons Control Act. Beyond Sudan, the conference also addressed human rights concerns in South Asia, where Sardar Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, chairman of the United Kashmir People’s National Party, pressed for investigations into extrajudicial killings and disappearances within Pakistani-administered territories.