Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)

Satellite images taken by the humanitarian research lab at the Yale School of Public Health show numerous clusters of ground discoloration across Darfur, consistent with the presence of human bodies. The blood spilled in Sudan is now visible from space. Let us think about that for a moment. The scale of killing is so vast, unrestrained and utterly unhidden that it is visible from orbit. Nobody, no government, institution or leader, can pretend that they do not know what is happening. The horror is in full view of the world. What is unfolding in Sudan is not a distant conflict we can categorise as another human tragedy of the global south. It is one of the most horrifying humanitarian disasters of our time. More than that, it is a moment that exposes something very dark about the direction global politics is taking.

At the heart of this war are two military forces, the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, neither of which can decisively defeat the other. Into that stalemate has poured a global foreign policy environment that has abandoned principle entirely. Where decisions once relied, at least in part, on diplomacy, pragmatism or moral pressure, what we now see in the governments across the world is the naked self-interest of powerful states pursuing business, resources and influence however they see fit. The consequence of this change of tone for Sudan has been catastrophic. Tens of thousands are dead. Over 13 million people have been driven from their homes. Hunger and famine stalk communities already shattered by violence. The very basics of human survival - hospitals, water and sanitation - have collapsed. Civilians are dying, not only from bullets but from starvation, disease and abandonment. In Darfur, long marginalised communities now face a brutal campaign of execution, displacement and terror. The RSF, emerging from the same Janjaweed militias responsible for earlier genocides, now controls cities through fear, violence and mass atrocity.

This is often called a civil war but that phrase hides the truth. This is not a war between communities or opposing cities. It is a war on civilians, a war in which foreign actors have found opportunity rather than obligation. To the fore is the United Arab Emirates with its complicity in this brutality. We know who is funding and arming these groups. We know how gold, oil and geopolitical leverage have turned Sudan into a marketplace for influence. Yet, despite crimes visible from space, the global response has been silence, sidestepping and selective outrage. We have seen the commentary that Sudan does not get the attention Palestine or Ukraine gets. I understand the frustration deeply but I reject the idea that we must choose which horror deserves our outrage. Humanity is not a competition. When a child starves in Sudan, it demands the same moral response as a child bombed in Gaza or displaced in Ukraine. The new world order, this transactional, self-interested, "not my problem" foreign policy, is a terrifying indicator of how the world will respond to the millions of Sudanese who are fleeing in search of safety. If powerful governments can watch atrocities from space and simply shrug, what hope do displaced Sudanese families have when they come knocking on the doors of nations that now treat asylum and poverty as just an inconvenience? That is exactly why our role matters here, why scrutiny matters and why calling out cruelty matters. Challenging self-interested decision-making matters, every single time it appears, no matter how exhausting it becomes. The moment we stop holding governments to account, the moment we stop naming injustice for what it is, we become part of the silence that lets these horrors continue.

We should continue to demand better - and I urge every Member of the House to continue to do the same - and to demand humanitarian corridors, a ceasefire and an end to the arms flows; to support the Sudanese diaspora and refugee pathways; and to refuse the idea that Sudan's suffering is simply part of the turbulence of our times. This is about more than international solidarity. It is about moral consistency and deciding whether human life actually matters or whether we only defend it when it suits our political convenience. The scale of the crisis is almost unfathomable but silence is not an option, not now when an entire nation is being fractured, starved and terrorised in full view of the world. We owe it to every family torn apart, every child displaced and every community destroyed. If we fail to speak for Sudan now, when the evidence of atrocity is literally visible from space, we are not just failing Sudan; we are failing the very idea that human life has value at all.

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