Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are planning, through the UK's membership of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, to ask for clarification from the government of Sudan regarding allegations made by Amnesty International that Sudan has used chemical weapons in attacks against civilians in the Darfur region; and whether they will request a challenge inspection if further clarification is not forthcoming.

​The UK continues to work very closely with both the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and Amnesty International. The government of Sudan, as a State Party to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), is obliged to investigate allegations of the use of chemical weapons within its territory and to report to the OPCW. In order to instigate a challenge inspection to be carried out by the OPCW, another state party to the CWC is required to present further credible evidence, for example, in addition to the allegations contained in Amnesty's report. We are not aware of any such further evidence. We continue to urge the government of Sudan to allow access throughout Darfur and to enable the United Nations/African Union Peacekeeping Mission to carry out its core mandate to protect civilians.