Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, if he will make an estimate of the daily capacity for humanitarian deliveries through the (a) Al-Tina and (b) Renk crossings into Sudan; and if he will take steps with his international counterparts to monitor the number of daily humanitarian deliveries through these crossings.

We are unable to estimate the daily capacity for humanitarian deliveries through these routes. The UK strongly condemns the decision on 21 February by the Sudanese Armed Forces to withdraw permission for cross-border deliveries of humanitarian aid from Adré in Chad. We note the SAF's commitments on 5 March to facilitate crossline and other cross-border routes, such as these, for the delivery of life-saving assistance to Darfur and the Kordofans. As penholder on Sudan, the UK has proposed a UN Security Council resolution, calling for an immediate ceasefire before the holy month of Ramadan and urging all parties to allow for unhindered cross-border and cross-line humanitarian access. We continue to monitor the situation closely and urge the warring parties to allow safe humanitarian access.