Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to address the persecution of Christians in the Sudan region.

We raise our concerns about freedom of religion with the Government of Sudan as part of our regular engagement on human rights issues. Most recently our Embassy in Khartoum raised this issue with the External Affairs Secretariat of the National Congress Party (the ruling political party) and Sudan’s National Human Rights Commission. Additionally, our Embassy regularly engages with Christian groups based in Sudan, and where possible, follows up on specific cases. We also highlight our concerns in the Department’s ‘Human Rights Country of Concern’ quarterly update for Sudan.