Sudan

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Thursday 17th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Baroness Chapman of Darlington) (Lab)]

We are working closely with countries that neighbour Sudan, for reasons that the noble Earl will understand. There has been enormous displacement of people. I went to Adré, on the border with Chad, and some of the accounts, particularly of sexual violence experienced by women who have walked many miles unaided to reach safety, will stay with me for ever.

We are working bilaterally with the Government of Chad and in South Sudan to support those populations. We have pooled funds and we are working alongside the international community to do what we can. The Foreign Secretary held a conference a couple of months ago now to try to move this forward. It is incredibly frustrating and difficult. Until there is some semblance of peace in Sudan, I fear we are going to continue to see incredible hardship and devastation meted out on the innocent civilian population of that country.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, I declare my interest in my continuing active involvement with the Sumoud civilian network, which is seeking an end to the war and a future civilian Government of Sudan. I too commend the work of the diaspora community here in the UK, including groups such as Humanitarian Action for Sudan, chaired by Zeinab Badawi, whom I met yesterday. It is providing invaluable support that is desperately needed, especially to the emergency rooms.

My question to the Minister relates to the most recent violence in El Fasher. It is now over a year since the UK successfully proposed United Nations Security Council Resolution 2736 on the protection of civilians. Notwithstanding the Secretary-General’s most recent call for ceasefires, we have seen the breaking of that, along with the most recent violence and the continuing persecution of civilians. What are the Government doing to ensure the enforcement of that resolution? There is no point in having Security Council resolutions unless they are enforced.

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I often find myself asking what the point is of many of these declarations and resolutions in these situations. We need to fully understand this context, and I am sure the noble Lord does: enforcement would be great, but who is going to do it and how would it happen? We clearly need to see civilians protected, along with aid workers, who are being deliberately targeted. The targeting of refugee camps is abhorrent, but one of the most frustrating aspects of this situation is the unwillingness of the armed groups to enter into any kind of meaningful process that could bring about peace. We talk about peacekeeping and so on, but there is no peace to keep. At the moment, this is the worst situation on the planet from a humanitarian point of view, and my great fear is that, until those leaders decide it is in their best interests to enter into a process, it will get worse.