South Sudan

Lord Collins of Highbury Excerpts

Wednesday 4th July 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

My Lords, I too thank the noble Lord, Lord Curry of Kirkharle, for initiating this debate. I know that the noble Lord, Lord Bates, has referred on numerous occasions to the situation in Sudan, and particularly South Sudan, as a manmade crisis. It is a manmade crisis that can, as we have heard in the debate, be avoided. I want to stress, as did the right reverend Prelate, that speakers on all Benches have reflected the mood of hope despite some of the circumstances that we have seen in the past.

Created in 2011 after decades of conflict, South Sudan was a symbol of hope for post-conflict societies, yet after just two years civil war broke out when President Kiir accused his former deputy, Riek Machar, of attempting a coup, and we have seen the consequences. Of course we had the peace deal that was brokered in 2015 by the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development, but by July 2016 the conflict started again and since then we have seen escalating violence and tensions. According to Oxfam, around 4 million people have been displaced out of a total population of just 12 million; half the population is experiencing extreme hunger and over 60% is in need of humanitarian assistance.

All noble Lords speaking in this debate have referred to the ceasefire last week and the agreement reached between Kiir and Machar. The agreement introduces a pre-transitional period of 120 days, in which as we have heard there are still outbreaks of violence, and then there is to be a power-sharing Government for three years that will be led by Kiir and will include three vice-presidents, the most senior of whom is to come from the Machar faction. After the failure of the previous agreements, the key issue for the international community and for the United Kingdom is how to maintain the pressure to keep the South Sudanese leaders engaged in this process. Like the noble Lord, Lord Curry, I would like to hear from the Minister about the concrete steps we can now take to hold those leaders to account, and like the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, I think that targeted sanctions are an important element of the suite that we have available. I also certainly agree with the noble Lord, Lord Alton, that the Government should consider using the powers in the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018, as it is now. Of course, there were many debates when that Act was going through on how precisely we can use targeted sanctions to hold people to account and ensure that they comply with international law. That will, I hope, have an important response from the Minister this evening.

The Government have also been using the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund for programmes in South Sudan. It was, of course, used very heavily in the 2015 agreement. What are the Government considering about how that fund can be used to underpin the new agreement? I know that we can look at failures, but we should also look at concrete examples of where it has worked, and I hope that the Minister can respond on that. Noble Lords have all referred to neighbouring countries, particularly Uganda, so I hope that the Minister can also outline how we can—as the noble Lord, Lord Alton, said—increase diplomacy with the President. I hope that the Minister will be able to say this evening that there are direct talks with the Foreign Secretary to ensure that the process is underpinned and that we do not just leave it to chance.

I have no doubt that the noble Lord, Lord Bates, will highlight exactly what the United Kingdom has been doing through DfID to support projects in South Sudan. The UK spends around £130 million annually and is constantly one of the world’s top three donors. Its work has involved providing life-saving food assistance to 440,000 people in 2016 and, in 2017, offering emergency food aid and livelihood support to nearly 500,000 people. As we have heard in the debate, the United Nations is now warning and predicting that famine will return and that food insecurity will be greater this year than last year, with starvation once again being used as a weapon of war—it is a manmade humanitarian crisis; that is what we need to remind ourselves. In stories of conflict it is, as we have heard from the noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, women and children who pay the highest price, particularly through the use of rape as an instrument of terror.

I conclude with the evidence presented to the International Development Committee in its evidence session last December, in which Dame Rosalind Marsden, the former ambassador and EU special representative for Sudan and South Sudan, claimed that the UK could do more to focus on local peacebuilding, taking regional factors into account, and understanding,

“the different dynamics of the conflict in South Sudan at subnational level”.

I hope that in his summation of the debate, the Minister will be able to tell us how we are going to devote more efforts to peacebuilding in the programmes across South Sudan.