Sudan

Baroness Goudie Excerpts

Friday 13th September 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Goudie (Lab)]

My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend on his appointment as Minister for Africa and look forward to continuing to work with him. I am pleased that we have decided to appoint a special envoy for Sudan. As the newspapers and periodicals have said, this is the worst catastrophe and civil war in the world at the moment, and it is going on and on. I am also pleased that in the early weeks of this Government the Development Minister was able to visit South Sudan to assess the position in Sudan for herself, and for the Government, and to give further funding.

On 27 August, we marked 500 days of unrelenting conflict in the grave and ongoing crisis in Sudan, as many noble Lords have said. This is not just any conflict. It is marked by the most egregious atrocity crimes—torture, ethnic cleansing, and the cold-blooded murder of innocent civilians, including men, women, and children. These crimes are being committed with shocking impunity. The perpetrators are so confident they will face no consequences that they have brazenly filmed their actions, recording the horrific abuses that they inflict on the Sudanese people. This is a crime in itself.

The warring factions—the Sudanese Armed Forces, SAF, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, RSF, led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti—are well aware that they are fighting a largely forgotten war. They know that the world’s attention is focused elsewhere—on Gaza and Ukraine—and that is why today’s debate is so important. They see that political, parliamentary and international media coverage of the Sudan crisis is hardly anywhere. This creates a perfect environment for them to carry out their terror without fear of accountability. It also raises serious questions about the double standards with which the international community approaches global crises, especially those in Africa.

I must remind the House of the gravity of the situation we are discussing today. Sudan is a country that endured genocide just two decades ago, when 200,000 Darfuri people were systematically exterminated by the al-Bashir regime. The conflict we witness today is deeply rooted in Sudan’s long history of impunity for atrocity crimes committed against marginalised communities. Both the SAF and the RSF are products of the al-Bashir regime, which still has not handed him over to the International Criminal Court to face charges. We must be firmer with the court in terms of speed and the way these cases are being dealt with. This is something we must look at.

This renewed conflict has claimed more than 150,000 lives in less than two years and displaced 20% of the population—both within Sudan and across its borders. This means that 8 million people have been newly displaced inside or outside the country, in addition to the over 3 million already displaced by previous conflicts.

Sudan is currently enduring a humanitarian catastrophe in full view of the world. The UN has declared a famine, but it needs to do much more. The UN should have to be there. There is a famine in Zamzam refugee camp in Sudan’s north Darfur region, where a child dies every two hours—it may be more as the days go on. Some 14 more areas are teetering on the brink of famine, and half the population fears severe hunger. There are reports of people in eastern Darfur IDP camps surviving on leaves. Are we going to stand by and let this unfold?

As if the war were not enough, the Sudanese people are grappling with severe and frequent flooding, which has destroyed homes. What do you do when your home is destroyed and there is no one to help you? Where do you go? This is what is happening. There is flooding of displacement camps—people are just about surviving—further complicating the delivery of aid by destroying key infrastructure. Waterborne diseases such as cholera are on the rise. Yet Médecins Sans Frontières reports that at least 50% of the medical centres have been destroyed by shelling and artillery fire. This is a tragic irony of the worst kind.

As we often see in these cases, women are bearing a disproportionate share of the violence. Women and girls make up more than half the registered refugees in Sudan, with the proportion even higher in some host countries. Beyond the dangers of conflict and displacement, women and girls are subjected to appalling levels of sexual violence in conflict areas and both within and outside Sudan—on the move or in countries of asylum. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed alarm over the reports that Sudanese women and girls are being abducted, chained and held in

“inhuman, degrading slave-like conditions”

in areas controlled by the RSF in Darfur. Is this what we expect, in this day and age, in a war? This is what is happening, and we have to stand up and bring other people to the table to say, “This has to cease”.

I endorse what my noble friend Lady Helic said—I was going to say some of that but will not repeat it—and what my noble friend Lord Ahmad said about women at the peace table. I would like an undertaking from the Minister that we will ensure that local women, as well as others, are at the peace table and all tables in all parts of Sudan.

The OHCHR has said it is

“running out of words to describe the horror of what is happening in Sudan”.

The time for words is over—too many lives have already been lost, and peacekeepers and humanitarians are risking their lives every day to alleviate the suffering. The Government must take a decisive stance, force the warring partners to come to the negotiating table, agree on a lasting ceasefire and de-escalate tensions. Women absolutely must be there because, without women, you cannot get peace. They will ensure that investment in education and health is part of those negotiations.

This will be impossible without strong two-party mediation, and the UK can and should act as a leading voice in this situation. I therefore ask the Government what steps they are taking to convince both sides of the conflict, first, to allow access for humanitarian aid; secondly, to comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law; and, thirdly, to ensure the protection of civilians, humanitarian workers and medical personnel.