Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department is taking diplomatic steps to encourage conflict parties in Sudan to remove (a) travel permits, (b) internal travel notifications for humanitarian staff, (c) unpredictable visa procedures and (d) other bureaucratic barriers to humanitarian access.

The UK continues to raise the critical issue of humanitarian access and the bureaucratic impediments placed by the warring parties on relief agencies. At the UN Security Council in December 2024 and again in January this year, we called for the warring parties to lift bureaucratic impediments and let aid get to those who need it. The former Minister for Development also engaged directly with the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, on the UN response and the bureaucratic obstacles it faces. In recent bilateral engagements with the head of the Sudanese Armed Forces, General Burhan, the UK lobbied against impediments including lengthy delays in the provision of visas for international humanitarian personnel.