Gaza and Sudan

Lord Austin of Dudley Excerpts

Wednesday 19th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

Those are really important questions. We will continue to protect our aid to Sudan. We have supported 2.5 million people, we are the third largest donor internationally ,and we take our responsibilities to continue that support very seriously.

On the point about civil society and local organisations, in many areas in Sudan, that is your only option. We are doing okay at that, but we need to do a lot more and to get better at it. We need to encourage international NGOs, the United Nations and others who work there to work in a similar way. It is more efficient, as you build capacity while you are doing the humanitarian work. These organisations right now can reach people who are just really hard to support in other ways.

On the issue of students, I have met students from Sudan and some women who had just completed their courses. They are incredibly frustrated: they are well educated, articulate and have an awful lot to give; they want professions and careers in Sudan and their ambition is to be able to work to reconstruct their country and rebuild their society. It is right that we do everything we can to enable them to realise that ambition.

[Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, as has been said, this is the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet, with half a million children already dead from starvation, 10 million more starving and millions more internally displaced or leaving the country as refugees. Tragically, the number starving actually is more than Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Gaza, Mali and South Sudan put together. We have seen appalling bloodshed in El Fasher over the last few weeks, and it looks like Tawila could be next. There are 650,000 desperate civilians. Given our role at the UN, what more can the Government do to protect civilians, to enable the negotiation of a ceasefire and to get the desperately needed aid that we have just heard about into the country?

I do not want to end on a discordant note, but this Statement is, as the noble Lord, Lord Purvis said, long overdue. I just wonder, after the last three years, and the almost daily—obsessive, if I may say so—debates that we have had on Israel and Gaza, which has been discussed in Parliament more than any other issue, including the economy, the NHS, crime or education, why is it that we sit here in an almost empty Chamber? Why are there are no protests outside every day or marches taking over the streets of London every week? Why does the Minister think that, when it comes to the desperate plight of people in Africa, there is an apparent comparative lack of concern in Parliament and among the public? What could explain this?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

There is no doubt that this is the worst humanitarian crisis of our time by a considerable measure. The number of deaths, the atrocities that are being committed, the lack of control and the normalisation of violence, particularly sexual violence, in this conflict are beyond anything that we have witnessed this century. What more can we do? We need to rally the international community to get more focus on this conflict. That, in the end, is how people will be brought to the negotiating table. We need to do everything that we can within the legal structures that we have and our work on the ground to ensure that testimonies are taken and evidence is gathered so there is accountability and an end to impunity. We need to continue to provide the practical support—both directly and through our partners on the ground—to provide the food, medicine and education that are needed by people who are in such desperate need.

Why has this taken so long to reach the attention of the country and internationally? There are many theories around this—I think the noble Lord, my friend, has his own. You can point to the lack of journalists in the area, or to the fact that Africa generally receives far too little attention. The noble Earl opposite says that there is desensitisation, and I have no doubt that that is part of it too. It is our job, however, to put all those things to one side and make sure that this conflict, and the suffering that it has brought about, receives the attention that it needs. If we do not, this will carry on for year after year. The only way that this will be resolved is with the international community—including but not only the African Union—stepping up, shining a light on it, coming together and resolving to conclude it.