El Fasher

Question

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the situation in El Fasher in Sudan.

My Lords, on Monday, the Foreign Secretary issued a statement calling on the RSF to protect civilians and facilitate unimpeded humanitarian access into El Fasher. As she made clear, the RSF leadership are accountable for these crimes. UK Special Representative Richard Crowder and his team in Addis have been in touch with the RSF and their political alliance, Tasis, as well as the Sudan Armed Forces, to urge restraint, the protection of civilians and acting in accordance with international humanitarian law. We are mobilising £23 million of existing UK aid to support the delivery of life-saving food and health assistance in northern Darfur, as well as support to those facing sexual violence.

My Lords, this is the world’s greatest humanitarian catastrophe. Famine alone has killed half a million children, and 10 million people are starving. That is more than in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Gaza, Mali and South Sudan combined. Some 9 million people have been internally displaced, 3.5 million have fled the country as refugees and thousands of civilians have been murdered just this week. The UK is the UN Security Council penholder on Sudan. What more can His Majesty’s Government do to mobilise the international community, get aid in, protect civilians, press for a ceasefire and enforce an arms embargo? Why do we hardly ever discuss this issue? This House and the other place should be raising this, day in and day out, until this carnage is brought to an end.

I thank my friend the noble Lord for that question and for his constant advocacy of this important subject. He has brought it to our notice before, and I agree entirely with his view that we have not spent enough time on it in the past. Let me set out where we are now. As he rightly says, we are the penholder at the UN Security Council and we have consistently advocated for a ceasefire, the protection of civilians and unhindered humanitarian access. Those have been our strategic commitments throughout. There will be an urgent UN Security Council meeting today, Thursday 30 October, called by the UK as penholder, and this was only agreed overnight. That is, as it were, breaking news, and I am pleased to report it to your Lordships’ House.

In November 2024, the UK and Sierra Leone prepared a UN Security Council resolution addressing the protection and humanitarian crisis in Darfur. This was vetoed by Russia, despite support from every other Security Council member. The UK welcomes the efforts of the Quad—the USA, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE—in seeking a resolution to the conflict in Sudan. The Quad statement issued on 12 September is a significant development. We stand ready to support the Quad’s effort.

My Lords, the UAE is probably the only country able to exert significant leverage on the RSF, given the level of its support for them and the fact that it is the repository for most of the wealth of many of the RSF’s leaders. The UAE does not seem inclined to pursue an end to the fighting in Sudan, but would it be possible at least to get it to pressure the RSF to allow sufficient humanitarian aid and medical care into Darfur to the people who need it? Otherwise, the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding there will only worsen.

I thank the noble and gallant Lord for that important question. The Government’s view is clear: external support to the SAF and the RSF only fuels the conflict. We continue to emphasise to all parties the importance of refraining from actions that prolong the conflict. We ask all those with influence over the warring parties—including the members of the Quad, of which the UAE is one—to bring them to the negotiating table to seek a political resolution. I may say more about this if noble Lords ask me about it, but the most important thing is humanitarian access.

My Lords, more than 5% of the population in Sudan are Christian. Since the start of the civil war in Sudan, there have been reports of both the RSF and the SAF targeting the Christian population. What engagement have the UK Government had with other Governments in the region to help to support and protect their Christian populations?

I thank the noble Lord for that question. We are very concerned about religious violence in Sudan, and indeed anywhere else in the world, and we certainly have sought to engage with the RSF on this. As the noble Lord knows, this conflict has a long history. I visited Sudan myself many years ago.

My Lords, Darfur has been a horrific conflict for decades and, as the noble Lord rightly said, we have not talked about it enough. However, a massacre based on rape, pillage and ethnic cleansing if El Fasher fell has been widely predicted for months. It is now happening, but all we are doing is passing resolutions and engaging in discussions. What are we actually going to do to protect civilians? What action will the Government take—or what is the point of being the penholder?

I thank the noble Lord for that question. As I said, we too have been urging action for the duration of this conflict, and we are very pleased with the efforts of the Quad. The most important priority, as set out in the Quad statement, is that we must have humanitarian access. The problem is not funds; the problem is access.

My Lords, the horrific images are finally pushing through into our media, and they should be an absolute wake-up call for this place and the other place. It has been a long time coming, as other noble Lords have said. For years, Christians have been slain and displaced, and women subjected to sexual violence of the worst kind. Given that we are the penholder at the UN, will the Minister confirm that, as a first step, His Majesty’s Government will press for a ceasefire and protection for the civilians in El Fasher?

I thank the noble Baroness for that question. I am happy to confirm that we will continue to press for a ceasefire, support the Quad and, through our role at the UN, promote the priorities that I have set out. I should say that the reports of mass atrocities caused by the RSF in El Fasher are deeply alarming, and we do not in any way underestimate the seriousness of what is going on.

My Lords, we know that the elections have been postponed. Women leaders and women candidates are already preparing for office. Sudan has a 35% quota for women but, while all this is happening, women are being maimed or violently threatened and are not being allowed to stand and be open about that. What is the penholder doing to ensure that we have women candidates, that women can win and that women will be part of the peace process—otherwise, there will be no stability at all in Sudan and other areas?

I thank my noble friend for that question. I entirely agree with her view that women must play a full role in the transition that we look forward to in Sudan, although it may be some time coming. On conflict-related sexual violence, which my noble friend refers to, noble Lords will know that we have been dedicating a lot of effort to that issue. We are currently designing a dedicated women and girls programme on gender-based violence and conflict-related sexual violence, which assures a strategic approach to gender mainstreaming, and we have new humanitarian programmes that will provide dedicated resources to women-led organisations. I should say to my noble friend that we are also concerned about reports of sexual violence against men and boys in the area.

My Lords, the Security Council resolution for the protection of civilians was passed in June 2024. On its anniversary, I asked the noble Baroness, Lady Chapman, what enforcement measures—which it is the duty of us as penholder to put forward—there were to enforce the Security Council resolution. Her answer to me on 17 July was:

“I often find myself asking what the point is of many of these declarations and resolutions in these situations”.—[Official Report, 17/07/25; col. 2000.]

Further to my noble friend’s question, what is the point of being a penholder in the Security Council if we are not actually implementing measures to enforce resolutions for the protection of civilians that the Security Council itself has passed?

I thank the noble Lord for that question. I have already said that there is a meeting of the UN Security Council today to discuss this further. I understand the frustration that he expresses. The biggest problem now is humanitarian access. Until we make progress on that, with the help of the warring militias, we will make very little progress on the wider ceasefire.