Sudan: Operational Restrictions on Humanitarian Actors

Lord Bruce of Bennachie Excerpts

Wednesday 15th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

It is incredibly precarious. We see increasing gathering of troops around El Obeid, and we see more civilians moving into the city because they are being displaced from surrounding villages and are seeking refuge. This is an incredibly dangerous situation. We are monitoring it very closely, bearing in mind the limitations on our ability to be present on the ground there. I can assure the noble Baroness, because I know she cares deeply about this, that we are talking to our counterparts at Head of State level, and we are all speaking to our counterparts wherever we can, because I think we all understand the way that this stops is for the backers of both the armed groups we are talking about to insist that it stops. They need to stop funding, stop arming, and enable peace to be secured and negotiated.

[Lord Bruce of Bennachie (LD)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as an adviser to DAI. I welcome what the Minister has said about UK government action, but, as she will know, at an event I hosted recently in this House, we heard how local actors were delivering humanitarian aid on the ground where international agencies could not get. I am glad the Government are supporting those, but will they do more to support the emergency response rooms in Sudan? In some cases, they are the only agencies delivering to the people, and it is worth taking the risk of giving them a bit more money.

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I agree with the noble Lord. I have met them, and I think they are fantastic. They are not required to meet the registration requirements of the RSF, so they are able to operate more flexibly. We have increased our funding to them for that reason.