Sudan

Debate between Andrew Mitchell and Catherine West

Wednesday 16th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Sir Andrew Mitchell (Sutton Coldfield) (Con)]

(Urgent Question): To ask the Minister if she will make a statement on Britain’s response to the worsening situation in Sudan.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Catherine West)]

Sudan is the worst humanitarian crisis on record. Over 30 million people need aid, and 12 million people have been displaced. Famine is spreading fast, and new reports confirm that the situation will deteriorate in the next three months. Cholera is also now widespread.

Lifesaving assistance continues to be blocked by the parties. Last month, five aid workers were killed in an appalling attack on a UN convoy that was delivering lifesaving aid to those fleeing violence in El Fasher. The deliberate targeting of aid workers clearly violates international law. As the United Nations Security Council penholder on Sudan, the UK led calls for accountability for such attacks, including through the UK-penned press statement on 12 June. Last week, the International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor found reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity may well have been, and continue to be, committed in Darfur. The perpetrators must be held to account.

The UK continues to play a leading role in ensuring that aid gets to where it is most needed. In April, the Foreign Secretary brought together a broad coalition of partners to build consensus on strengthening humanitarian access. The co-chairs’ statement called on the parties to facilitate humanitarian access in accordance with their commitments in the Jeddah declaration. Over £810 million of funding for Sudan was announced, including £120 million of UK aid, which will support over 650,000 people this year.

In the absence of a ceasefire, the humanitarian situation will only worsen. We continue to call on the warring parties to place the interests of the Sudanese people over their pursuit of a military victory. The UK is working with our international partners to push the warring parties to return to the negotiating table and commit to a meaningful, sustainable ceasefire.

Any process that follows must be inclusive. We underline the importance of a return to civilian rule that is democratic and representative of the whole country. Moves by the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to establish their own parallel Governments will only exacerbate de facto splits, and could lead to the permanent partition of Sudan. That is in no one’s interests.

We will continue to use all diplomatic tools at our disposal to protect civilians, get aid to those who need it most, and support a Sudanese-led peace process with civilians at its heart.

[Sir Andrew Mitchell]

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for granting this urgent question today.

I make no apologies for raising the dire and desperate straits of the Sudanese people again in this House, not least because Britain leads on the Sudanese situation at the United Nations on behalf of all other nations. As the Minister said, the people of Sudan are in the throes of the worst humanitarian catastrophe in the world and the situation is worsening, even if such things can hardly be imagined. Earlier this month, the United Nations and international organisations reported the mass displacement of tens of thousands of people following the combatant forces advancing across the Kordofan states. There have been months of increased mobilisation of fighters, including the recruitment of children from across Darfur. As fighting expands, the Kordofan states are the next deadly front.

In the recent and welcome ministerial conference hosted by the Foreign Secretary, much-needed money was raised, but the goal of a high-level contact group to drive political efforts towards achieving a ceasefire and protecting Sudanese civilians met with an impasse. We must accept that despite our efforts the past two years have been a story of faltering international endeavour where world events have cast Sudan into the shadows as its people have faced only deepening peril.

I ask the Minister three questions. First, what lessons have the Government learned from the siege of El Fasher and the overwhelming of the camp for displaced people at Zamzam to prepare for and protect civilians from the spread of violence across the Kordofan states? How are the Government supporting the local emergency response rooms? Secondly, can she confirm that the prevention of atrocities remains a key pillar of British policy and is unaffected by the recent cuts in the development budget? Thirdly, and finally, what are the Government doing to advance international efforts to protect civilians alongside their pursuit of a ceasefire? Are we to assume the Jeddah process is dead? What discussions has she had with her counterparts in the United States over recent weeks?

[Catherine West]

I thank the right hon. Member for Sutton Coldfield (Sir Andrew Mitchell) for his questions and his long-standing interest not just in Africa in general, but particularly in this awful conflict in Sudan. Of course, Sudan is also a personal priority for the Foreign Secretary, which is why he brought together Foreign Ministers to try to find a resolution. The Prime Minister has reiterated that the UK will continue to play a key humanitarian role, evidenced by the £120 million of UK aid announced for Sudan this year.

On the right hon. Gentleman’s question in relation to the work post-Jeddah, we are working to sustain the momentum of the actions agreed at the conference. We continue to work with multilateral institutions, including the African Union, to ensure strong African leadership in response to the conflict. We have also joined the EU-convened consultative group on Sudan in June and we have initiated a friends of Sudan grouping in Geneva to advance our work on the protection of civilians, because the right hon. Gentleman is right to say that international law in this regard places a heavy emphasis on prevention of conflict and of atrocities. We continue to identify opportunities to use our role as penholder on Sudan in the UN Security Council and to galvanise UN Security Council action on the conflict in Sudan.

The right hon. Gentleman also specifically asked about the situation in the El Fasher camps and I want to reassure him that the UK is doing all it can, but the question is always about access. We have the money, we have the workers; it is access that we need in order to provide that lifesaving aid. That is the nub of the issue, which we are working on.

Myanmar Earthquake

Debate between Andrew Mitchell and Catherine West

Monday 31st March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Catherine West]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question and for his knowledge in these areas of policy. I ask him to allow four or five days so that the various international partners that make up the Disasters Emergency Committee have time to deliberate. As he is aware, we have a generous civil society in the UK. As soon as there is information to bring forward, we will make a public statement.

[Mr Andrew Mitchell (Sutton Coldfield) (Con)]

I thank the hon. Lady for her statement to the House. For those of us who have been closely involved on issues to do with Burma/Myanmar for decades now, the severity of the disaster is shown by the fact that, unusually, the regime has called for international support. However, it is a mark of the barbarity of that illegal and corrupt junta that it conducted 11 airstrikes against its own people after the earthquake took place, which is undoubtedly a war crime. We have a long history of engagement with Burma. Some 6.3 million children are absolutely dependent on assistance. It will be very difficult to sustain the necessary level of support in future following Labour’s dreadful cuts to the international development programme. What discussions has the Minister had with her American counterparts to ensure that we drive the UK and US joint spending and get greater value for money?

[Catherine West]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his contribution and for his knowledge of Myanmar/Burma and of the situation. I could not agree more with him in his description of the Tatmadaw and its approach over the years—absolutely ruthless and brutal to its own people. He talks about the children who are affected. He will be aware that between 4 million and 5 million children were out of school even before the earthquake, so there is a strong sense that this could not have happened to a more vulnerable country. He asked about the role of the USA. As he is aware, US aid has been paused internationally, but I was delighted to see at the weekend that the US Government have said that they will contribute $2 million immediately. We will seek to work with US partners, who know the area as well, so that we can join up our efforts.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Mitchell and Catherine West

Tuesday 14th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Catherine West]

Ministers have engaged frankly with counterparts in India on Mr Johal’s case, pushing for faster progress towards a resolution, including the call for an investigation into allegations of torture by the authorities.

[Mr Andrew Mitchell (Sutton Coldfield) (Con)]

The Government are right to continue the all-party approach to the next International Development Association replenishment of the World Bank, which is extremely good value for taxpayer money. Will the Foreign Secretary press the Treasury to match what the former Chancellor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Godalming and Ash (Jeremy Hunt), did in adding £2.5 billion to the 0.5% official development assistance budget, to help defray some of the costs of first-year asylum seekers, which that budget bears? Otherwise, we will be spending more development money in UK postal districts than in Africa.