Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what diplomatic steps his Department is taking to discourage regional and other external actors from aiding conflict in Sudan through provision of financial, logistical or military support to factions in that country.

We are pursuing all diplomatic avenues, including at the UN Security Council and Human Rights Council, and through cooperation with counterparts from African, Quad (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America) and European countries, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the African Union and the United Nations, to end the violence in Sudan. We are also working through a new African Union-led Core Group to ensure inclusive regional and international action to secure a viable peace process. On 12 July, we announced a package of six sanctions under the Sudan (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020, freezing the assets of three commercial entities linked to each party involved in the conflict. These sanctions target entities which the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces have used to support their war efforts and are designed to press the parties to allow humanitarian assistance, end the violence and engage in a meaningful and sustained progress to peace. We will continue to use all our diplomatic levers to urge regional and external actors to support international efforts to bring the warring parties back to the negotiating table and end the conflict.