Baroness Cox speaks of desperation in Blue Nile in a parliamentary debate

This morning, Baroness Cox reported of the desperate situation in Sudan’s Blue Nile state to the House of Lords.

Watch Baroness Cox speaking at the debate:

High mortality rates are being reported in Blue Nile region, where hospitals are severely overcrowded. Medical statistics from hospitals in Ed Damazin and El Roseires report that 1,400 people present themselves for treatment each day. Abdelrahman Bilal, the Minister of Health of Blue Nile state, said that mortality rates of children show 90 deaths out of 1,000 cases.

Transcript:

My Lords, may I ask the noble Lady and Minister if she is aware that earlier this year I visited Blue Nile State with my small NGO, Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust or HART, where we met 9,000 recently displaced people who were desperate, they had no food, there was risk of starvation, and HART was the only NGO to reach them. We were able to raise emergency funding that saved many lives, but reports tell of very high mortality rates, especially for children. May I therefore ask the noble lady and minister to explain how the UK government is working with the international community to protect and provide for these very vulnerable, and indeed dying, people?

Read the debate here.