The Government should have a strategy to counteract the growing influence of Russia in Sudan, a Tory former defence minister has said, as the north-east African country continues to face a “horrendous crisis”.
Shadow Foreign Office minister Dame Harriett Baldwin argued that Russia is “fomenting” the conflict in Sudan in order to gain access to Red Sea and Mediterranean ports.
Sudan descended into conflict in April 2023 after months of worsening tensions turned into open fighting between rival factions seeking control of the country.
Foreign Office minister Anneliese Dodds said the violence “bears the hallmarks” of genocide and she is working with international players to “push forward peace and the ceasefire that is so desperately needed”.
On Tuesday, Ms Dodds told MPs: “This really is a horrendous crisis, and it’s one that deserves international focus, and that is what we are determined to provide as a new UK Government.”
During an urgent question on the conflict, Dame Harriett said: “It is an absolutely urgent situation with 10 million people internally displaced, four million of them are children, two million have fled as refugees and half the country’s population of 47 million now needs food aid.”
She said the UK has a “key role to play in bringing other donors together for Sudan” and to convene “influential regional players” such as the African Union, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Dame Harriett added: “What strategy does the UK Government have to counteract the growing influence of Russia in the region, where they are fomenting these conflicts both in Sudan and in nearby countries like Libya in order to gain access to Red Sea and Mediterranean ports, and encourage migration patterns such as those what we have seen?”
Ms Dodds replied: “When I was in Addis (Ababa), I met with the African Union, with commissioner Bankole (Adeoye) to talk with him about what we could do together, ensuring that other regional actors are brought in to push forward peace and the ceasefire that’s so desperately needed, the humanitarian access that’s needed.
“But of course, there is also that negative issue of the other countries that are becoming involved in this conflict that are worsening it, and the UK Government is absolutely clear engagement with the warring parties in any measure that is not focused on humanitarian access or peace, that engagement will only prolong this devastating war, which is leading to so much death and destruction.”
Later in the session, Ms Dodds said the UK Government is concerned that violence in the Sudanese conflict “bears the hallmarks” of genocide.
She told MPs: “When it comes to specifically the finding of genocide, I would be clear that’s an internationally focused definition, but we are concerned that we are seeing patterns of violence that bear the hallmarks of that kind of a development. We are keeping that very closely under review.”
Ms Dodds added that the situation was having a deep impact on children who had fled the country to neighbouring South Sudan, stating: “Those children could not smile any more, there was nothing that they could see for their future in that situation.
“It was extremely disturbing, they had lost their parents, they had seen, for example, siblings dying of measles, siblings dying of diarrhoea while they were trying to escape the conflict in Sudan. A truly horrendous situation. Children’s rights must be raised up the agenda.”
Elsewhere, Ms Dodds said she was “deeply concerned” about conflict-related sexual assaults in Sudan.
This came in response to Labour MP for Rotherham Sarah Champion, who described the conflict as “a war on women”, and asked: “Can the Secretary of State please tell us what specifically she is doing to protect women from the horrendous rapes that are going on?”
Ms Dodds replied: “We are deeply concerned about the escalation of conflict-related sexual violence that we’ve seen taking place in Sudan since the outbreak of the conflict in April 2023.
“We’ve seen reports, that I know she will be well aware of, and others in the House, that for example, there have been 262 rape cases reported over the period from April to August. That is likely to be a massive underestimate of the situation on the ground.”
