Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what are the UK’s current development and humanitarian programmes in Sudan; and what effect the recent unrest in Khartoum and elsewhere in the country has had on those programmes.

The UK’s main development and humanitarian programmes, operated at Post are listed below.

All programmes, including humanitarian activities have been affected by Sudan’s current economic crisis. This includes rising procurement and operational costs and delays to activities due to fuel shortages.

The current demonstrations and Government of Sudan response to the demonstrations has led to the postponement of certain activities which involve convening large groups; and the postponement of meetings and monitoring visits that involve travel to areas where we or our partners assess increased risks to staff safety, in line with Foreign Office travel advice. There have been some delays in administrative procedures related to humanitarian programmes due to Government of Sudan officials being re-deployed to other areas. DFID and Embassy officials at Post continue to consider whether to maintain, adjust or suspend activities on a case to case basis.

Officials in Khartoum are in contact with delivery partners on the ground to assess evolving risks should the situation become protracted. These include the risk of redeploying staff of partners based in affected remote areas to Khartoum to mitigate safety risks and the ongoing risks to Sudanese staff that may be affected by the increased risk of violence.