CONFLICT in Sudan and elsewhere, which is usually related to belief, demands a joint reconciliation unit inside government which underpins relationships with NGOs and faith groups, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.
“How will we wage peace — be those to whom Jesus refers within the Beatitudes as blessed, and referred to as children of God?” Archbishop Welby asked during a debate within the House of Lords last week about Sudan.
“Sudan is already a human catastrophe on a rare scale. It is using vast quantities of humanitarian aid. . . I already hear anecdotally from inside the diocese of Canterbury . . . that those meeting people landing in boats find that a really high proportion are coming from Sudan.”
Introducing the four-and-a-half-hour debate, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) minister Lord Collins described the situation in stark terms. “What began as an influence struggle between military factions has escalated right into a protracted war and a humanitarian catastrophe. This conflict is just not merely a continuation of the country’s troubled history: it’s a profound crisis with implications for the whole region.
“Sudan is facing a man-made famine and one in all the worst humanitarian crises on the planet. More than ten million people have been forced to go away their homes, and up to date widespread flooding has pushed the country to the brink, devastating an especially fragile ecosystem. The UN estimates that greater than 24 million people — about half the Sudanese population — need humanitarian assistance: sadly, a figure that continues to grow because the conflict drags on.”
The Bishop of Leeds, the Rt Revd Nick Baines, explained how his diocese had “nearly half a century of strong relationships with the Episcopal Church of Sudan, [which] exists not for its own sake but for the sake of the people of Sudan. Despite massive threat and displacement, the bishops and clergy have largely stayed in situ.”
He referred to his visit to Port Sudan with the Bishop of Bradford, Dr Toby Howarth, in June, and to the people they met. “The international community must press hard now for protected access points to be opened across the country so that tens of millions of lives will be saved and a viable future for the youngsters of Sudan will be opened up. Children should be prioritised if the seeds of the subsequent several generations of violence, power struggles, and poverty aren’t to be watered so freely within the blood-soaked violence of now.
“The Church of England’s love for our sisters and brothers in Sudan is not going to diminish. . . For us within the Christian Church, faith is incarnational: fleshed, physical, and material.”
Archbishop Welby considered the “recent creation of the FCDO’s negotiations and peace-process support team [to be] underfunded, understaffed, and held inside a limited FCDO remit”, and that “a joint reconciliation unit, staffed by intelligence, conflict analysts, and military, civilian, and trade specialists, complemented by experienced international negotiators, and underpinned by relations with NGOs and faith groups” was needed; “for many of those conflicts are in areas of high levels of belief”.
Lord Collins said that he welcomed the Archbishop’s “ongoing advocacy and tireless efforts”, and that the Government recognised “the necessary role of local Sudanese faith-based actors”.
Earlier this month, the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan released its first report, and referred to “an appalling range of harrowing human-rights violations and international crimes, including many which can amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity” committed by Sudan’s warring parties.
Mohamed Chande Othman, who chairs the Fact-Finding Mission, said: “The gravity of those findings underscores the urgent and immediate motion to guard civilians. It is imperative that an independent and impartial force with a mandate to safeguard civilians be deployed immediately. The protection of the civilian population is paramount, and all parties must comply with their obligations under international law and immediately and unconditionally stop all attacks on the civilian population.”
