Sudan’s military has used chemical weapons on at least two occasions against the paramilitary group it is battling for control of the country, four senior United States officials said on Thursday.

The weapons were deployed recently in remote areas of Sudan, and targeted members of the Rapid Support Forces paramilitaries that the army has been fighting since April 2023. But U.S. officials worry the weapons could soon be used in densely populated parts of the capital, Khartoum.

The revelations about chemical weapons came as the United States announced sanctions on Thursday against the Sudanese military chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, for documented atrocities by his troops, including indiscriminate bombing of civilians and the use of starvation as a weapon of war.

The use of chemical weapons crosses yet another boundary in the war between the Sudanese military and the R.S.F., its former ally. By many measures, the conflict in Sudan has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with as many as 150,000 people killed, over 11 million displaced and now the world’s worst famine in decades.

“Under Burhan’s leadership, the S.A.F.’s war tactics have included indiscriminate bombing of civilian infrastructure, attacks on schools, markets,betef and hospitals, and extrajudicial executions,” the Treasury Department said, using an acronym for Sudan’s armed forces.

“I just don’t like the way they’re playing it, telling us we should all be more optimistic when things just are not looking good right now,” Mr. Howard said while warming up for a softball game in East Las Vegas. “They’re all out for themselves, not helping people like us over here. We just get the same promises, and not much is changing.”

Recognizing the extraordinary dangers of a president seeking not just to weaponize the criminal justice system for political ends but trying as well to assume personal control over who should be investigated and charged, the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, sought to stall.

General al-Burhan responded with defiance: “We are ready to face any sanctions for the sake of serving this nation, and we welcome them,” he told reporters during a visit to El Gezira state.

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