Sudan: Operational Restrictions on Humanitarian Actors

Earl of Courtown Excerpts

Wednesday 15th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Courtown (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Brown of Silvertown, for bringing this up, and I could not agree more with everything she has said. The essential thing is to get the aid flowing—to remove the impediments to the flow of aid to these people. We must have an end to the conflict in the first place. The noble Baroness mentioned the United Nations; there are other groups such as the African Union and the League of Arab States. What influence can His Majesty’s Government use with those groups to try to sort out this problem and to enable aid to reach those who actually need it?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I was at the African Union meetings earlier this year and we have frequent conversations with it. We are actively supporting the US-led quad process. We will continue to do those things. The noble Earl is right that there are issues we face today with humanitarian support, but, in the long run, this will be resolved by a cessation of the conflict. We must use all the mechanisms—there are several available to us—to bring that about.