Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)

I want to raise the genocide that has been happening in Sudan. It is the forgotten genocide because so much of our focus has been on Palestine. There is a large and important Sudanese community in Ireland. I had meetings with members of the community before the election. Many of them are doctors, contributing massively to our health service, engineers and so on. They are living with the reality of trying to keep in touch with relatives at this time.

I want to mention how this relates to the EU. Interestingly, when we are apparently sending off our Minister for Finance to the World Bank, I just looked up Sudan's debt, which is 70% of its GDP. Maybe the ex-Minister might have a word in the ear of the World Bank. Imagine that we are fund-raising for Sudan when it is crippled with debt to western governments. Over two years, we have seen this conflict escalate, most recently with the RSF. The RSF has been encouraged by the EU traditionally. It was involved in the migration process or the Khartoum process. It has also helped to shape some of the proponents of the genocide. The genocide has killed about 150,000 people and 12 million people have been displaced.

What is it all about? Once again, it is about resources. It is about access to the River Nile, agricultural land and gold because Sudan has massive resources like this, which are some important for control. Ironically, the quad powers that are being asked to broker a ceasefire are also involved in backing one side or the other, and sometimes both. It is absolutely critical that we end the chokehold of colonial and regional powers over Sudan. The Sudanese people had a brave revolution in 2018 and 2019. Both sides, the army and the RSF, are partners in crime against that revolution. They drowned it in blood and ensured that it would not go forward. I want to identify the UAE in particular. It did not want a democratic regime in that area. It did not want a successful revolution to send a message to others in that area, and that is behind this. The EU needs to support the people of Sudan.

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