Yvette Cooper leads calls to end ‘unimaginable suffering’ in Sudan

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper is set to press for a humanitarian solution in Sudan as she chairs a United Nations Security Council meeting on Thursday.

Ms Cooper will demand accountability for the atrocities unfolding in the country, highlighting the violence endured by women and girls.

She said: “The world is catastrophically failing the people of Sudan. Women and girls continue to pay a devastating price in this war.

“I’m here at the United Nations to make it clear that the UK will not allow these experiences to be ignored. The world cannot continue to turn its back.

“We must mobilise the world’s resource and resolve to bring this unimaginable suffering to an end. The international community must do more to protect women and girls.

“We must send a clear message to perpetrators of sexual violence that they will face the full weight of the law.”

The meeting comes after the Foreign Secretary visited the Sudanese border and announced £20 million in funding for victims of sexual violence in the country.

A Sudanese campaigner against sexual violence will attend the UN meeting.

The UK government has imposed new sanctions on six individuals suspected of committing atrocities or fuelling the devastating war in Sudan through the supply of mercenaries and military equipment.

The measures target senior commanders in the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), whose soldiers are suspected of carrying out massacres against civilians and using rape as a weapon of war.

Also sanctioned are those suspected of recruiting foreign fighters for the conflict or facilitating the purchase of military equipment.

Ms Cooper stated there needs to be a "price to pay" for military commanders who have allowed the atrocities to happen, as well as the "callous profiteers" fuelling the violence.

The Government wants to “dismantle the war machine” with its sanctions, while calling for a ceasefire and unhindered access for aid agencies, she said.