The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Mr David Lammy)
I would like to update the House on UK action to respond to the ongoing conflict in Sudan, including our support to the Sudanese people affected by violence.
The conflict between the Sudanese armed forces and Rapid Support Forces in Sudan has created one of the world’s most pressing humanitarian emergencies. By 2025, 30 million people are expected to need humanitarian assistance. The war has now also caused the worst displacement crisis in the world, with over 11 million people displaced. The conflict is having a disproportionate impact on woman and girls, who are worst affected by a surge in conflict-related sexual violence and over-represented among the displaced.
In August, the Minister for Development, the right hon. Anneliese Dodds MP, visited South Sudan and Ethiopia, seeing at first hand the regional impact of the conflict. She heard from people who had been forced to flee violence in Sudan, as well as pro-democracy Sudanese civil society groups to hear how the UK can push forward efforts to secure unrestricted humanitarian access and support a sustained, meaningful and inclusive peace process with the African Union.
The UK remains committed to supporting the people of Sudan, including those forced to flee across borders to neighbouring countries. That is why, yesterday, I announced a £113 million package of support to over a million people affected by violence in Sudan, South Sudan, Chad and Uganda. With this announcement, the UK has doubled our aid in response to the conflict in Sudan this year to £227 million.
The new funding will support UN and NGO partners, providing food, cash, shelter, medical assistance, water and sanitation. Education Cannot Wait will also receive a £10 million boost, to provide safe learning spaces and psychosocial support for education and safe learning spaces for 200,000 vulnerable children in refugee and host communities in Chad, Ethiopia, Libya, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Uganda.
However, increased funding alone will not prevent millions from starving in the coming months. Last week, the SAF decided to keep the Adré border crossing open for three more months. This is a welcome move, but since Adré reopened in August, a combination of bureaucratic impediments heavy rain and flooding have prevented the scale up of aid entering Sudan and reaching those in most need. We estimate that just 1.8% of the food needed reached the millions of food insecure people in Darfur.
The UK is using all the diplomatic levers at its disposal to galvanise international pressure on the warring parties to improve humanitarian access and the protection of civilians—including through our role as the UN Security Council penholder on Sudan.
Today, as part of the UK’s presidency of the UN Security Council, I will convene international partners in New York to discuss the humanitarian situation in Sudan, with the aim of agreeing concerted and collective action to pressure the warring parties to remove obstacles to humanitarian operations. The Sudanese armed forces must urgently reopen the Adré border crossing and the Rapid Support Forces must stop blocking aid from moving freely throughout Sudan.
In a further development, today, on 18 November, despite 14 votes in favour and zero abstentions, the UN Security Council failed to adopt a resolution led by the UK and Sierra Leone on the protection of civilians in Sudan due to a Russian veto. This resolution called for the development of a compliance mechanism for the Jeddah declaration, practical options to support mediation efforts, and the establishment of humanitarian pauses. It also aimed to galvanise action towards agreement on a comprehensive, nationwide ceasefire which is the most effective way to enhance the protection of civilians.
It was designed to build upon the UN Security Council open meeting chaired by the Minister for Africa, Lord Collins, which stressed the urgent need to protect civilians in the absence of a national ceasefire and increase support for the UN Secretary-General’s recommendations.
Yet Russia decided to block this critical resolution. Russia’s veto risks sending a message to the warring parties that they can act with impunity.
But the UK’s response to this historic crisis remains consistent and unwavering. We will not let Sudan become a forgotten conflict.
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