Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether Ministers in his Department have made representations to the government of Sudan on reports of human rights abuses in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states; and if he will make a statement.

We remain deeply concerned by the human rights situation in South Kordofan and Blue Nile ("The Two Areas"). Baroness Anelay’s statement of 13 February underlined that attacks on the civilian populations were entirely unacceptable and our Ambassador in Khartoum continues to raise this issue with the Government of Sudan on behalf of HMG.