US says Sudan used chemical weapons, imposes sanctions
23 May 2025 08:00
Washington (AFP) The United States said Thursday that it had determined that Sudan's military used chemical weapons in the country's bloody civil war last year and will impose sanctions on Khartoum."The United States calls on the Government of Sudan to cease all chemical weapons use and uphold its obligations" under the Chemical Weapons Convention, an international treaty signed by nearly all countries that prohibits their use, the State Department said."The United States remains fully committed to holding to account those responsible for contributing to chemical weapons proliferation," State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement.The State Department did not immediately offer details on when and where the weapons were used.The New York Times reported in January that Sudan's military had used chemical weapons on at least two occasions in remote areas of its war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).Citing anonymous US officials, the newspaper said that the weapon appeared to be chlorine gas, which can cause severe respiratory pain and death.The State Department said it notified Congress on Thursday of its determination on the use of chemical weapons, triggering sanctions after 15 days.The sanctions include restrictions on US exports and financing to Sudan's government.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Gulf Today
20 hours ago
- Gulf Today
Irish university to cut links with Israel over Gaza war
Ireland's prestigious Trinity College Dublin said on Wednesday that it would cut all links with Israel in protest at "ongoing violations of international and humanitarian law." The university's board informed students by email on Wednesday that it had accepted the recommendations of a taskforce to sever "institutional links with the State of Israel, Israeli universities and companies headquartered in Israel." The recommendations would be "enacted for the duration of the ongoing violations of international and humanitarian law", said the email sent by the board's chairman Paul Farrell, and seen by AFP. The taskforce was set up after part of the university's campus in central Dublin was blockaded by students for five days last year in protest at Israel's actions in Gaza. Among the taskforce's recommendations approved by the board were pledges to divest "from all companies headquartered in Israel" and to "enter into no future supply contracts with Israeli firms" and "no new commercial relationships with Israeli entities." The university also said that it would "enter into no further mobility agreements with Israeli universities." Trinity has two current Erasmus+ exchange agreements with Israeli universities: Bar Ilan University, an agreement that ends in July 2026, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which ends in July 2025, the university told AFP in an email. The board also said that the university "should not submit for approval or agree to participate in any new institutional research agreements involving Israeli participation." It "should seek to align itself with like-minded universities and bodies in an effort to influence EU policy concerning Israel's participation in such collaborations," it added. Ireland has been among the most outspoken critics of Israel's response to the October 7, 2023 attacks on southern Israel by Hamas militants that sparked the war in Gaza. Polls since the start of the war have shown overwhelming pro-Palestinian sympathy in Ireland. In May 2024, Dublin joined several other European countries in recognising Palestine as a "sovereign and independent state." It then joined South Africa in bringing a case before the International Court of Justice in the Hague accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza -- charges angrily denied by Israeli leaders. In December, Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar ordered the closure of the country's embassy in Dublin, blaming Ireland's "extreme anti-Israel policies". Agence France-Presse
Al Etihad
a day ago
- Al Etihad
Vietnam scraps two-child limit as birth rate declines
4 June 2025 21:17 HANOI (AFP)Vietnam's government has scrapped its long-standing policy of limiting families to two children, state media said Wednesday, as the country battles to reverse a declining birth country banned couples from having more than two children in 1988, but a family's size is now a decision for each individual couple, Vietnam News Agency country has experienced historically low birth rates in the last three years. The total fertility rate dropped to 1.91 children per woman in 2024, below replacement level, the Ministry of Health said this rates have fallen from 2.11 children per woman in 2021, to 2.01 in 2022 and 1.96 in trend is most pronounced in urbanised, economically developed regions, especially in big cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City as the cost of living Minh Huong, a 22-year-old office worker, told AFP that the government regulation mattered little to her as she had no plans to have children."Even though I am an Asian, with social norms that say women need to get married and have kids, it's too costly to raise a child."
Al Etihad
a day ago
- Al Etihad
Zelensky says ready for meeting with Putin, Trump, Erdogan 'any day'
4 June 2025 17:22 Kyiv (AFP)Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday said that he was ready to hold a meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump "any day". "We are ready for such a meeting any day," Zelensky told reporters at a press conference in Kyiv, adding that he was proposing that a ceasefire be put in place before any such summit, which would also include Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan.
