Sudan

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Thursday 5th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

I completely agree with my hon. Friend. It was 25 years ago when the UK led the drawing-up of the resolution on women, peace and security at the United Nations. Since then, successive Governments have highlighted the issue of violence against women and girls. I want to ensure that that is at the heart of our foreign policy not just in Sudan, but more widely. It was devastating to hear from one aid worker who told me that—although she had worked on conflicts for 20 years and had experience of dealing with sexual violence in conflict for very many years—this instance was by far the worst. She talked to all the women arriving at the camp, and she said it felt like almost every one of them had a terrible story of sexual violence to tell.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

Over the last two-and-a-half years, there has hardly been a week when we have not had an urgent question, statement or debate on the situation in Gaza, yet the situation in Sudan has often been overlooked, despite the fact that at least three times as many people have been killed in Sudan as in Gaza. I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s statement, but the key here is to ensure that an arms embargo exists across the world. Can she update the House on how many of our allies have agreed to such an arms embargo? What action will be taken against those who are frankly not our allies to try to prevent those arms from getting into Sudan?

[Yvette Cooper]

The energy that we have had on Gaza and the work that took place last summer are really important. They have helped to achieve a ceasefire that is still fragile, but a ceasefire nevertheless, and a peace process that is moving forward. We need that same urgency and intensity on Sudan. This needs to be global; we need the same sense of countries coming together internationally. That is why we will continue to maintain the spotlight on it.

Restricting and preventing arms flows has been central to many of the international discussions and some of the discussions in the Quad, and countries have made commitments about ending arms flows from neighbouring parties. My personal belief is that there is much more work to do in this area, given the number of countries involved in these arms flows.