Sudan

Lord Sentamu Excerpts

Thursday 27th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sentamu (CB)]

My Lords, I too congratulate the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Leeds, Nick Baines, on securing this debate. He has been a tireless supporter of Sudan, even almost endangering his life as he visited that troubled area, and he is also a faithful servant of Church, state and the world.

I declare an interest in that from November 2021 until June 2023 I was chair of Christian Aid. Christian Aid has been deeply engaged in the region. For context, the charity says:

“We are providing some support for the church agency humanitarian response being jointly led by our sister agency, Norwegian Church Aid, and CAFOD. Also via our German sister agency DKH we have been supporting the emergency rooms in Sudan—a mutual aid initiative that was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize”.


There is a UK dimension to the crisis in so far as the Government have been reluctant to challenge UAE support for the RSF or Saudi Arabia’s support for the Government in Sudan, both of which have prolonged the conflict and, because of the weapons being provided and the cover given for persistent breaches of international law, have increased civilian suffering.

Thomas Brown of the House of Lords Library published an article on 17 November on the humanitarian situation in Sudan, which says:

“Sudan’s current civil war continues to have a devastating impact on civilians, with UN agencies describing the conflict as both the world’s largest humanitarian crisis and the world’s largest displacement crisis. Amid reports of ongoing atrocities in and around El Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region and continuing hostilities elsewhere, the UK has been involved in diplomatic efforts calling for an end to the conflict and has increased funding for emergency humanitarian assistance”.


In light of the passing of a UK-drafted resolution by the UN Human Rights Council securing international consensus for an urgent UN inquiry into alleged crimes in El Fasher, because impunity cannot be the outcome of these horrifying events, will the Minister please tell us how far the promise of the Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, to get teams into Sudan to investigate those atrocities and hold the perpetrators to account has got? Our words must be matched by our actions. We must become peacemakers, not peace lovers.