Jim Shannon

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Allin-Khan. I thank the hon. Member for Gillingham and Rainham (Naushabah Khan) for setting the scene incredibly well. She was right to recognise the importance of the debate. Its importance is equal—I say this with great respect—to that of the Foreign Secretary’s statement, which is currently being debated in the main Chamber. The impact of the conflict in Sudan is even greater, given the number of people affected. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak specifically about the conflict’s devastating impact on freedom of religion and belief. I always try to start with a verse of scripture, because for me that underlines the moral weight of what we are discussing. Proverbs 31:8 instructs us: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.” In this Chamber, we are a voice for the voiceless. That is precisely what this debate asks us to do: to be the spokespeople in this Chamber for the Sudanese people. Let us be clear from the outset: the situation in Sudan is not simply a conventional campaign of religious persecution. Since fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces erupted in April 2023, state authority has fragmented catastrophically. Armed groups operate with widespread immunity. Religious minorities have become acutely and disproportionately vulnerable in the chaos that has followed. It would be misleading, of course, to characterise the situation solely as one side persecuting Christians because both armed factions have attacked places of worship and terrorised communities of faith. The stats illustrate the scale of that. The Open Doors 2026 world watch list ranked Sudan fourth in the world for Christian persecution, with a score of 92 out of 100—the highest ever recorded for Sudan. That tells you what is happening in Sudan. I am going to speak about the persecution. Approximately 2.2 million Christians, around 4.3% of the population, remain in Sudan. Some 23 Christians have been killed for faith-related reasons and around 100 churches or Christian buildings have been attacked or closed. In December 2024, RSF soldiers attacked a Church of Christ congregation during a Christmas prayer service in Al-Hasaheisa, forcing out some 177 worshippers, assaulting at least 14 people and looting the building. That is not collateral damage; it is targeted religious terror—that is how it must be categorised. As the chair of the all-party parliamentary group for international freedom of religion or belief, I must reiterate that freedom of religion or belief must mean freedom for all. Muslims, too, are victims. In September 2025, an RSF attack on a mosque in El Fasher during dawn prayers killed more than 80 worshippers. Mosques have been damaged and destroyed alongside churches. Baha’is, Shi’a Muslims and other small communities are equally exposed when institutional protection collapses entirely. That is what has happened in Sudan: protection is not there for anybody at this moment in time. What makes its deterioration particularly grievous is that at one time Sudan was moving in a better direction. Following Omar al-Bashir’s removal in 2019, Sudan abolished the death penalty for apostasy and began to remove sharia law as a constitutional basis for legislation. Those were genuinely encouraging developments; in 2019 things did seem brighter, if only for a short time. The October 2021 coup halted that progress and the 2023 civil war has now swept away most of what remained of institutional religious protection—it has all gone away in some seven years. We must encourage the Secretary of State to address three specific points. First, what representations is His Majesty’s Government making to ensure that FORB protections are explicitly incorporated into any future constitutional settlement in Sudan, preserving and building on the reforms of 2019 to 2020? Secondly, what steps are being taken to document the attacks on religious infrastructure by both armed factions and raise them with international partners? I congratulate the Minister on her performance in the Chamber today; it was certainly strong, and I look forward to a similar response to the questions that we put forward here. I would like there to be accountability for those who have carried out terrible atrocities in Sudan. Is a process taking place to ensure that those who carried out heinous crimes—the hon. Lady for Gillingham and Rainham referred to a nine-year-old child being abused and raped by these monsters—have accountability? Thirdly, will the Government commit to ensuring that humanitarian assistance reaches displaced religious minority communities who face discrimination even in accessing aid? There is no fairness in how aid is processed. In conclusion, any influence that we have can and must be used to help the people for whom persecution has become a fact of life. That is a fact that we can never accept.