Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that the government of Sudan used chemical weapons in 2024; and what are the implications for their Joint Analysis of Conflict and Stability assessment of the situation in Sudan, and their planned response to the situation in Sudan.

The Foreign Secretary made clear in his statement on 23 May that any use of chemical weapons is unacceptable. It is imperative that the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) engage constructively with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in order to facilitate a thorough and impartial investigation. We expect the SAF to abide by its obligations under the Chemical Weapon Convention not to develop, produce, possess, or use chemical weapons.

The recent US determination that the SAF have used chemical weapons does not automatically trigger an update to our Joint Analysis of Conflict and Stability (JACS) assessment on Sudan. The JACS process is triggered following specialist technical advice that new or updated joint analysis is needed for a particular country; it is context-dependent.