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AI Accuses Sudan of Deadly Darfur Chemical Attacks

AI Accuses Sudan of Deadly Darfur Chemical Attacks
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Rights group Amnesty International 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.

AI Accuses Sudan of Deadly Darfur Chemical Attacks

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.

The group said its 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".

"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 report said.

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 apparent chemical burns, satellite images of destroyed villages and displaced people, interviews with more than 200 survivors, and analysis by chemical weapons experts.

"Amnesty's 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 a-Shami said.

He further 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."

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, 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, which launched a brutal counter-insurgency.

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

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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