Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent diplomatic steps he has taken to help secure guarantees from Sudan’s warring parties that humanitarian assistance will be delivered (a) safely and (b) unimpeded to people affected by conflict.

The UK remains fully committed to ensuring safe and unimpeded humanitarian access in Sudan. In January, the Foreign Secretary visited the Chad-Sudan border at Adré to see first-hand the impact of conflict on Sudanese refugees. He used the visit as an opportunity to call again on warring parties to urgently improve humanitarian access. On 25 November 2024, the Foreign Secretary also chaired a Sudan session during the G7 + Arab Quint Foreign Ministers' meeting to discuss collective action the G7 and Quint could take with the warring parties to push for improved humanitarian access, protection of civilians, and increased aid. In our statements at the United Nations Security Council, including most recently in an open briefing on 6 January, as well as in our engagements with international partners, the UK continues to push for additional aid routes across Sudan and into it, including through South Sudan. The UK Special Representative, Richard Crowder, met the head of the Sudanese Armed Forces, General Burhan, during his first visit to Sudan in December 2024, and pressed him on current impediments to access such as visas.