Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the support and help that Sudan provided to ease the humanitarian crisis in South Sudan by opening its border, allowing refugees to enter Sudan, and reducing the oil levy.

Sudan has facilitated the delivery of emergency humanitarian supplies into South Sudan. In 2014 the Governments of Sudan and South Sudan signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the World Food Programme which has enabled 47,000 metric tons of emergency and nutrition assistance to be delivered to more than 200,000 South Sudanese in the Upper Nile State.

There are over 230,000 South Sudanese refugees in Sudan. Until March the government of Sudan allowed refugees to move freely, work, and live in host communities, but South Sudanese arriving since then have been classed as ‘foreigners’, thereby restricting their movements within Sudan. We are not aware of any formal agreement by Sudan to reduce the payments it levies on South Sudan’s oil exports.