Sudan

Baroness Cox Excerpts

Friday 13th September 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Cox (CB)]

My Lords, I add my message of gratitude and appreciation for this debate, because the situation in Sudan needs to be taken note of and needs a response. I have visited Sudan many times. I have worked as a nurse in remote areas in Sudan. Currently, my small not-for-profit charity, the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust—HART—is working with local partners to provide aid and advocacy for people in their areas. At present we are mostly involved with people living in the Abyei area and in Blue Nile, but I will focus on Blue Nile state, Abyei and the Nuba mountains in South Kordofan.

These areas are situated along the volatile border with South Sudan, and their populations have endured more than five decades of violence and insecurity. Food stocks are declining rapidly due to humanitarian blockades, inconsistent rainfall, swarms of locusts and other hazards. Thousands of people are classified as living in the highest level of catastrophic hunger. Host communities do not have the resources to cope with the daily influx of refugees. As one local aid worker from Blue Nile told me recently in an urgent request for assistance: “The situation here is dire. The magnitude of human suffering is rising by the day. We cannot access basics like food and water. Everyone predicts famine”.

The crisis continues to worsen in Blue Nile and the Nuba mountains, yet the two areas remain tragically off the radar screen when it comes to international engagement. The people’s plight is ignored by the world’s media. As with so many forgotten corners of Sudan, foreign powers and big aid agencies are unable or unwilling to help. The UN-led humanitarian response plan for Sudan is only 31% funded.

Abyei is another region in Sudan where we in HART have been working for many years with local partners. Its very significant oil resources make it a prime target for the rulers in Khartoum to use unrest and violence to claim and to take over the area. A local person in the Nuba mountains told me personally: “They try to drive us out and kill us. But aid enables us to stay here and to keep our land for tomorrow”. According to an article in the Economist,

“the world has responded to Sudan’s war with neglect and fatalism, showing how disorder is becoming normalised”.

HART is doing what it can to provide assistance to the most vulnerable groups. We work with indigenous local partners, who work around the clock to serve the needs of their communities. Their responses to conflict have saved thousands of lives, yet much more clearly needs to be done, as we have heard in this debate so far. There is an urgent need for scaled-up support and unfettered humanitarian access. In places such as Blue Nile and the Nuba mountains, it must not be left to underresourced local communities, alongside small charities such as HART, to tackle this crisis on their own.

One of HART’s priorities is to fund education for young people. We always ask people, “What are your priorities?”, and they say to us, “Please, we’re desperate for education. It’s essential for our young people and for the future of our country”. I therefore urge the Minister to disburse all the £89 million pledged by the UK at the Sudan conference in April and to scale up funding for forgotten communities, including financial assistance for indigenous aid networks, which operate behind closed borders and, despite threats to their safety, courageously respond to the people’s needs with far greater insight and far better access than UN agencies or international organisations.

According to reports, at least 19,000 people have been killed and 33,000 injured across the country since the conflict broke out in April 2023—and that is generally believed to be a significant underestimate. More than 10 million people, half of whom are children, have fled their homes, and more than 2 million people have crossed into neighbouring countries. The scale of killings and displacement is overwhelming.

It is not too late for the UK to prevent further catastrophe. Steps can and must be taken to halt the course of the conflict. International actors who exploit the crisis to their advantage, and who fuel the violence with financial and military support to the warring parties, must be held to account. I therefore join other calls for His Majesty’s Government to use every diplomatic tool to increase pressure on the UAE, Iran and others who reportedly carry out such dealings with impunity.

It is innocent civilians who bear the brunt of this conflict. This is especially true in places away from the spotlight where we are working with local people, such as Blue Nile and the Nuba mountains. They have already suffered decades of identity-based atrocity crimes, famine and armed conflict. Scaling up our response without delays would send a powerful message that they are not forgotten. I hope very much that one outcome of this debate will be a reassurance from His Majesty’s Government that such a message will be forthcoming.