The Crisis in Sudan: Meeting Between the All-Party Group on Women, Peace & Security (APG-WPS) in the Northern Ireland Assembly and Sudanese Women Civil Society Leaders, 20 November 2025

On 20 November, Forward Thinking convened an online meeting between members of the Northern Ireland All-Party Group on Women, Peace & Security (APG-WPS) and Sudanese women leading the humanitarian response in Sudan. The meeting was also attended by Sudanese civil society representatives based in Belfast. 

With Sudan largely absent from international political attention, the meeting created a crucial channel for Sudanese women to provide first-hand testimonies of the dire conditions on the ground and the acute humanitarian aid and protection gaps to parliamentarians and decision makers. Without direct insights from those affected, an effective international response and a sustainable pathway to peace cannot be formed. 

Sudan continues to face escalating violence, with ongoing mass killings, disappearances, and the systematic use of sexual violence by armed groups – particularly the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Health facilities have largely collapsed across many states, and most of the population have acutely limited access to food and medicine. Displacement continues to rise as the conflict intensifies, with over 12 million people displaced inside Sudan and more than four million refugees in neighbouring countries. 

Hundreds of thousands of families in besieged cities such as El-Fashir remain trapped, without safe routes to leave. In Kordofan, more than one million people have been displaced amid drone strikes on civilian areas, the destruction of medical facilities, and soaring malnutrition rates that have reached up to 43% in some localities. In Khartoum, education and health systems are barely functioning, leaving most children out of school and communities vulnerable to cholera and dengue outbreaks. An estimated 15 million children across Sudan have been out of school for three years. 

Recommendations emphasised ensuring safe corridors for aid and expanding medical, nutrition, shelter, and gender-based violence protection services and kits for women and girls. Participants also underscored the urgent need to halt weapons flows to armed groups, ensure accountability for external actors, strengthen women’s livelihoods through targeted support for micro-enterprises, and guarantee Sudanese women’s voices are central to political and peace processes. Parliamentarians and the APG-WPS members committed to maintaining attention on Sudan and raising these concerns with ministries of foreign affairs.