The report is based on a file provided by a Middle East intelligence agency that includes about 150 documents, photos, video clips and audio recordings, in addition to thousands of text messages, many of which appear to come from the phones of senior Sudanese officers.
The New York Times has released classified documents that back up allegations that Sudan’s military is developing and using toxic bombs in the country’s ongoing war.
Sudan’s army has denied US allegations that it used chemical weapons during Sudan’s war, allegations that have led to tough US sanctions targeting army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
The paper has obtained evidence that explains how and why the Sudanese military developed and produced chemical weapons over a six-month period in 2024.
The newspaper confirmed it had access to the file, which contains photographs, video clips, documents and communications showing a secret Sudanese military unit producing chlorine-based munitions for use against rapid support forces.
The file contains plans for the bombs, details of an apparent attempt to cover up the project after its discovery by the United States, and an indication that some of the chlorine used in making the bombs was obtained from a civilian water treatment center that received the chemical from international aid organizations.
The newspaper noted that the US administration took the file seriously and shared the visual materials it contained with US intelligence, and US officials used them in January 2025 to assess whether Sudan had chemical weapons.
He said the bulk of the file, which includes about 150 documents, photographs, video clips and audio recordings, in addition to several thousand text messages, comes from the cellphones of senior Sudanese army officers.
Evidence is “known”
Voice and text messages linked to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan indicate the Sudanese army chief had direct knowledge of alleged chemical weapons tests, a key factor in the US imposing sanctions in January 2025, the newspaper reported.
Experts who reviewed the files for the newspaper said they represented possible attempts to develop chemical weapons, but they warned that this could only be confirmed by an investigation by neutral experts in Sudan.
Elizabeth Fichter, spokeswoman for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said several countries had asked the organization “to obtain clarifications from Sudan regarding allegations of chemical weapons use.” He added that the process is “ongoing”.
The pressure comes mainly from the United States, which in June announced a second round of chemical weapons sanctions as part of a broader effort to force Sudan’s army to agree to a ceasefire.
A US State Department spokesman said the sanctions would remain in place until Sudan destroys “all chemical weapons and their production facilities under international control”.
Tariq Hussain and the chlorine bomb project.
The New York Times indicated that the Sudanese army resorted to chemical weapons early in the war, especially after losing Khartoum in mid-2024. At the time, the file said, the head of the chlorine bomb project, Brigadier General Tariq Hussain, suggested that the solution was to use chlorine.
In a message to his colleagues, which was later suspended, General Hussein explained how the deadly gas could be turned into a weapon to gain an advantage in the battle for Khartoum.
He released prototype illustrations of the new munitions, which he said combine an explosive warhead and about 33 pounds of chlorine gas.
The new munitions had the advantage of killing enemy forces either by disintegrating them with shrapnel or by poisoning them with chlorine gas, as he explained in his letter. The explosion was enough to leave no chemical traces of the attack.
As of July 2024, General Hussein oversaw a factory assembling prototypes of these munitions, according to photos and letters in the file.
On July 22, Antonov’s cargo plane took off from Merow Airport, about 200 miles north of Khartoum, to test chlorine-based munitions.
General Hussain later wrote: “Test passed 100 percent” of the video of the desert explosion. “It fell on target and released gas.”
Brigadier General Amir Idris, identified in the records as overseeing military aircraft operations, replied: “Total secrecy.”
The project also faced challenges, the letters show. Chlorine gas often leaked from the bombs, and one morning workers found dead insects and scorpions strewn across the hangar floor, apparently after suffocating overnight, Hussain wrote.
Where did chlorine come from?
Chlorine came partly from international markets. Unlike more dangerous chemicals like sarin or VX, chlorine is not a controlled substance.
In late August 2024, General Hussein claimed to have imported 20 chlorine cylinders from Egypt, enough to make 1,100 bombs.
General Hussein said he also obtained chlorine gas from the al-Manara water treatment plant in Omdurman, one of the few facilities of its kind still operating during the war.
“Al-Manara has some cylinders and we took them from there,” he said in an audio message to General Idris on August 26.
A 2016 news video about the Al-Manara station shows large yellow chlorine drums similar to those found in a munitions factory. But during the war, much of their stock was donated by international aid organizations that used chlorine to stop repeated outbreaks of cholera.
In the letters, the Red Cross said it had donated 30 cylinders of chlorine gas to the station in 2023, while CARE, another aid organization, said it had delivered 35 cylinders between 2024 and 2025. A UNICEF spokesman said it had supplied chlorine gas to six water treatment plants, including Khara20. 2025 year.
By October 2024, General Hussein said he had produced about 300 chemical munitions, most of which were stored at Marawi Airport.
“They drank the gas,” he wrote in a September 2024 text to a colleague, describing enemy fighters inhaling chlorine gas after being attacked. The documents identify the site of the attack at the Al-Jil oil refinery, a facility north of Khartoum that was controlled by the Rapid Support Force at the time.
His claim of using chemical munitions to strike the target has been corroborated by his enemies and the news. On September 13, the Rapid Support Force issued a statement accusing the Sudanese army of firing “toxic” missiles at the refinery.
Images shared on social media showed the men wearing civilian clothes and wearing oxygen masks inside the facility.
An investigation by France 24, the French state television network, also confirmed chemical attacks on the oil facility.
But a French investigation concluded that the chlorine bombs were large gas cylinders, not the smaller munitions Hussein had built. The reason for this apparent resistance was unclear.
There were no confirmed deaths.
As for other common strikes, they are difficult to confirm. On October 17, Hussain reported a second strike on a munitions factory, which he said caused serious casualties, causing people to flee to nearby villages. This attack did not appear in RSF’s statements or social media at the time.
The chemical program appears to have been shut down after the United States imposed sanctions in May 2025.
A few days later, Burhan ordered Hussain to remove “every trace” of his activities.
The answer came: “The operation took place a month ago.”
In the latest round of sanctions, in June, the United States imposed sanctions on Hussein for importing explosives to make bombs, although the notice did not mention chemical weapons.
By this time, al-Burhan had formed a committee to investigate the American allegations. Among the committee’s advisers was Hussain, the program’s architect, according to a letter on file.
When the committee submitted its interim report in July, it said it had found no traces of chemical weapons. The final report is still awaited.
