Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In a world replete with humanitarian crises from Gaza to Ukraine it's sometimes very difficult for other crises to get attention in the world or, indeed, here. Today I want to highlight just one: Sudan. Sudan is currently facing the world's largest hunger crisis and the world's largest displacement crisis. The scale of suffering is unimaginable. Over half the population live in acute hunger, struggling each day for enough food to survive. Eleven million people have fled their homes—that's somewhere between half and a third of our population—often with nothing but the clothes on their backs in search of safety and stability.

You might ask what this has got to do with Australia. Well, every humanitarian crisis impacts on every human in the world. Fatima Zakria from Blacktown, in my electorate, recently lost her sister and all eight of her sister's children in an artillery strike—eight of her nieces and nephews, dead. This is not an isolated incident. Over 15,000 civilians are estimated to have been killed in Darfur alone since the conflict began. Many members of my community have lost family. Many think they've lost family but are unable to make any contact.

On 1 or 2 December last year, the Zamzam camp came under heavy shelling. Located near Al Fasher, the camp hosts 500,000 people. And it came under shelling. According to humanitarian agencies access to food, clean water and medical treatment in Zamzam is now almost non-existent. Tragically, five people were killed and 18 were wounded.

The list of incidents and tragedies goes on. On 24 January an attack occurred at the Saudi Teaching Maternal Hospital in Al Fasher. I'll say it again: an attack on a maternal hospital. The attack was carried out by the Rapid Support Forces and claimed the lives of at least 70 patients and wounded dozens. This was the only functional hospital in El Fasher, and it was attacked. And, once again, the Zamzam camp came under attack, and this time 2,000 people lost their lives in this one attack. As I said, this is one of the world's worst humanitarian crises and I haven't seen it reported anywhere, really, in Australia. I'm not being critical of journalists—it's a very busy international environment—but it's right that it be noted, at least, in this parliament.

I want to thank my friend Musab Hassan, the chairperson of the Sudanese Zaghawa Community Association in Australia, for talking to me about this, and I extend my best wishes and condolences to his entire community.

Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In accordance with standing order 193, the time for members' constituency statements has concluded.