Sudan and South Sudan: EUC Report

Baroness Cox Excerpts

Wednesday 17th October 2012 Grand Committee

[Baroness Cox]

My Lords, I add my congratulations to the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, and his comprehensive introduction to this debate. I welcome the noble Baroness, Lady Warsi, to her ministerial position in this capacity. I will focus predominantly on first-hand evidence obtained during a visit to South Sudan with the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust—or HART—in April this year. We visited Agok, near Abyei, and three camps in the border areas of Sudan and South Sudan at Yida, Doro and Renk. However, I refer very briefly first to nine agreements reached in Addis Ababa, which address many of the issues highlighted in the EU follow-up report and are to be warmly welcomed as a hopeful sign of a major breakthrough in the relations between Sudan and South Sudan. I also welcome the significant progress with regard to reopening the oil pipelines and the distribution of oil revenues.

In this context, I return very briefly to the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Trimble, regarding the Government of South Sudan’s concern over criticism of their decision to cut off the pipeline, believing that the international community did not appreciate its reasons for doing so. These included the Republic of Sudan’s imposition of ludicrously high transfer fees for oil and unprovoked bombings by Sudan across the international border into South Sudan. I can testify to the reality of those bombardments across the international border, having been there at the time of the bombings near Agok and of Bentiu in Unity state.

The Government of South Sudan felt, I believe understandably, that the only leverage available to them to put pressure on the Government of Sudan was to cut off the pipeline, although they fully appreciated this would bring hardship to their own people as well as the people in Sudan.

I turn to our visit to the borders of South Sudan, South Kordofan and Blue Nile. As the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Exeter has so powerfully highlighted, a humanitarian catastrophe exists. While we were there half a million people had fled from their homes in South Kordofan and Blue Nile because of constant bombardment by the Government of Sudan. Many were hiding in caves with deadly snakes, with little or no access to food, water, shelter or medicine. They said that they feared bombs more than snakes. Civilians have also been too terrified by the bombs to return to their villages to plant or reap harvests. They have been suffering food shortages, causing acute malnutrition. Humanitarian conditions for these internally displaced people deteriorated even further with the problems associated with the rainy season.

A recent assessment in South Kordofan found the nutrition situation verging on critical—81.5% of households are surviving on only one meal a day compared with only 9.5% a year ago and zero two years ago; 65.7% of households have less than one week’s food stock and a significantly smaller than normal harvest is expected as civilians have been unable to harvest crops. The situation is exacerbated by the Khartoum Government continuing to deny humanitarian aid organisations access to the civilian victims of its military offences. There is now an urgent need for targeted supplementary and therapeutic feeding programmes in South Kordofan, with supplementary feeding for children aged six to 59 months and similar needs for the displaced people in Blue Nile.

Given the scale of the humanitarian crisis and Khartoum’s continuing failure to allow aid organisations to access all those in need, will Her Majesty’s Government consider, as a matter of great urgency, provision of funding for life-saving aid for those in need in South Kordofan and Blue Nile? Like my noble friend from Merlin, I must also declare an interest as CEO of HART, currently working in South Sudan, and previously working in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan.

I want also to ask the Minister if Her Majesty’s Government will join with others to put more effective pressure on Khartoum to allow and ensure immediate access by aid organisations to all in need in Sudan.

When we visited the camps in South Sudan at Yida and Doro, for people who had been forced to flee into South Sudan from South Kordofan and Blue Nile because of aerial bombardment, the humanitarian situation was already dire and with the rainy season it has become truly catastrophic. According to the UN Refugee Agency, there are now at least 174,000 refugees from South Kordofan and Blue Nile in South Sudan’s Unity and Upper Nile states. In some areas more than 40% are children. Local Sudanese aid workers are reporting high incidences of diarrhoea, skin infections, malaria and typhoid.

According to the UN Refugee Agency, last week about 100 Sudanese refugees from South Kordofan were arriving daily in Yida camp and with the end of the rainy season approaching, UNHCR is expecting an increasing deluge of refugees to arrive.

We also visited the camp at Doro for civilians who have had to flee from Blue Nile to escape aerial bombardment. Conditions were as serious there as those at Yida and much of the neighbouring camp at Jamam is now under water, increasing the risk of malaria and epidemic diseases such as cholera and typhoid.

Finally, we visited the camp at Renk, where civilians deemed “southerners” by the Government of Sudan had been expelled from their homes and were living in horrendous conditions. They were allowed to bring only a few possessions and had built pathetically fragile shelters which were no match for the rains. Many had not wanted to leave their homes or jobs in Sudan, many had never lived in the south. Sudan’s policy of expulsion has caused immense suffering for thousands of civilians.

Will Her Majesty’s Government make representations to the Government of Sudan about the problems still affecting those who were affected by this very disturbing policy? There is a need for an honest appraisal of responsibility for the problems suffered by both nations. Too often there is an implied attribution of moral equivalence with regard to the Governments of Sudan and South Sudan. The ICC-indicted president of Sudan continues to inflict remorseless military offences against his own people in Darfur, South Kordofan and the Blue Nile and to bomb targets across the border in South Sudan. By contrast, South Sudan does not attack its own civilians, nor expel them from the land whatever their race or religion. A failure to call the Government in Khartoum to account for its asymmetrical aggression and systematic violations of human rights of its own people may be seen as a licence for impunity.

Of course, it is also important to recognise many problems in South Sudan, such as inter-tribal conflicts, lawlessness and some disturbing corruption. These need to be addressed. However, the point was emphasised by speakers meeting at Chatham House yesterday that it should be appreciated that violence, such as that which occurred in Jonglei State is inevitable in all such post-conflict situations. It is remarkable, they also emphasised, that there has not been more violence. A similar point was made in a joint statement by the Sudanese Anglican and Roman Catholic archbishops whose people on the ground, including mediators, emphasised that there have been some improvements. That is indeed a great achievement, given the very catastrophic situation prevailing in so much of the country.

In conclusion, the recent agreements offer hope for significant developments to promote much needed peace between the two nations. However, the international community, including the European Union, will need to maintain support, encouragement and apply pressure, where necessary, to ensure that the agreements are fulfilled and that neither Government renege on commitments already given. There is also a need to encourage both Governments to make progress on the outstanding issues, such as those concerning Abyei, South Kordofan and Blue Nile. Let us hope that a subsequent EU report will be able to record positive change and a scenario of hope for the peoples of Sudan and South Sudan who have suffered too much for too long. We all look forward to that day.