Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. WARNER. Madam President, as I come to the floor today, as we all know, this is a time of incredible international instability. If you turn on the news, you are confronted with tragic images of conflict and displacement in Gaza and the West Bank; broader violence and upheaval in the Middle East, Syria, Lebanon; and the ongoing violence in Ukraine with Russia's illegal invasion.

Now, each of these crises deserve our attention. What many of us may not know is that if you look all across the world, in terms of in what conflict are there more people impacted daily--with hunger, humanitarian, or literally acts of war--where are there more deaths than Gaza, Ukraine, and the Middle East combined--that is the ongoing war in Sudan.

This is a conflict between two warring parties--no good guys here-- fueled by external actors, in which violence has caused tens of millions to flee their homes, and it has left more than half of Sudan's population of 50 million literally on the brink of starvation.

The International Rescue Committee recently affirmed that this is ``the biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded.'' Think about that-- bigger than Darfur 20 years ago, bigger than--some of us will remember ``We Are the World'' and the horrible tragedy of starvation in Ethiopia. This is the biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded. Yet, for the most part, the Sudanese people feel forgotten by the world.

I rise today because this conflict must not be ignored and because America must lead--not back away--in times like these, when suffering and terror are at their peak.

At the heart of this crisis is the ongoing violence between the Sudanese Armed Forces, called SAF, and the Rapid Support Forces, RSF, fighting for control over this country. It is estimated that the fighting and resulting food crisis have killed upwards of more than 100,000 Sudanese and left literally millions on the verge of starvation.

Both SAF and RSF have inflicted horrible tragedies and atrocities on the people of Sudan. The State Department has accused members of both SAF and RSF of war crimes, while members of the RSF and allied militias stand accused of additional crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.

A recent United Nations report documents ``large-scale human rights and international humanitarian law violations'' by both sides and also, particular to RSF, horrific alleged sexual crimes, including ``widespread sexual and gender-based violence, rape, sexual slavery, abduction, and recruitment and use of children in hostilities.''

These atrocities, over nearly 2 years of conflict, have left the Sudanese population of more than 50 million in total--over 25 million of those in desperate need of food assistance. Health and sanitation conditions have contributed to spiraling outbreaks of cholera, malaria, dengue fever, and other diseases.

Our Ambassador to the United Nations said in recent months that this conflict and resulting conditions place millions of Sudanese ``on the verge of a generational famine.'' Due to these conditions, more than 14 million Sudanese have been forced to flee their homes, with large numbers actually seeking refuge in neighboring countries, which, again, risks broader destabilization.

I think one of the newest countries in the world--very poor--is South Sudan. If you are fleeing to South Sudan, Chad, or Ethiopia because Sudan is in such challenging states, that could lead to destabilization across all of east Africa.

And as much as we cite these statistics, the real truth is we don't really know because this civil war has, for the most part, completely excluded all outside media.

From what I have learned over the last year--and there are other Members of this body who have spoken on this issue--one thing is clear to me: This is a catastrophe. First and foremost, the Sudanese need humanitarian aid; and aid workers, humanitarian actors, and local Sudanese volunteers need safe access to respond. But despite public promises to the contrary, both SAF and the RSF have consistently erected physical and bureaucratic barriers to deny, delay, and otherwise hinder humanitarian aid from reaching those displaced civilians, even, at times, targeting and literally killing aid workers.

As we mark the human tragedies of this conflict, we must also recognize the conflict's political tragedy. The outbreak of this violence a couple of years ago came just after the historic pro- democracy protests that swept parts of Sudan in 2019, when literally hundreds of civic, professional, and political organizations came to call for an end and actually got rid of then-President Omar al-Bashir's government. That government had lasted since 1989--for 30 years--and it had, again, a historic record of depriving citizens and trampling on human rights.

So what happened was these groups came together and ousted Bashir with the promise of a democracy. Yet both sides, after a year or so of some back and forth, instead started this warring civil war that, rather than bring democratic reform, has again brought unprecedented levels of violence, brutality, and depravation.

Now, the Biden administration has helped. They are currently the largest donor of humanitarian aid and just today--just today--added $200 million more to that humanitarian aid. The Biden administration-- again, through the Special Envoy for Sudan, Tom Perriello--a former Congressman from Virginia, I might add--has leveraged sanctions to pressure actors fueling the conflict, and that has resulted in increased humanitarian access into the country and has particularly provided critical assistance to local responders, including the Sudanese Emergency Response Rooms, which are led by community members in Sudan who, oftentimes at risk of their own lives, have been truly incredible on the ground. They actually were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Yet, despite this aid, the violence continues to escalate, not deescalate; and starvation, disease, and death are increasing, not decreasing. So we can't just look at the current conditions and say anything other than the following: that we and, frankly, the world have come up short on this conflict. The vacuum created by the lack of a coordinated international response has been filled by a considerable degree of outside influence, with foreign governments and foreign entities, frankly, backing proxies on both sides.

Russia, always willing to spread mischief, is actually fueling parts of warring factions on both sides. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt--in many ways our allies--they have supported humanitarian aid; but at the same time, they have almost created a proxy battle with UAE supporting the RSF and, oftentimes, Saudi Arabia and Egypt supporting SAF, which really needs to be called out.

Foreign business entities are profiting--literally billions and billions of dollars--from this conflict.

This week, I sent a letter to President Biden, along with Senator Risch and other bipartisan colleagues, urging the administration to take additional steps to ensure that humanitarian aid continues to flow and that the actual external parties who are fueling the conflict be held accountable, including, in particular, the administration to sanction business entities profiting from the illegal and illicit smuggling of Sudanese gold.

Many of us remember the conflicts in central Africa years ago with blood diamonds. In many ways in size and scale, the profiting coming from mining, extraction, and then smuggling of Sudanese gold dwarfs those other activities. The truth is, Sudan is one of Africa's largest gold producers and has a gold industry worth, literally, billions of dollars. And while both SAF and RSF control some of the mines, the RSF controls the vast majority. And over the past decade, its leadership has, frankly, funded a lot of itself by taking that gold and illegally smuggling it to then raise money for arms, for propaganda, and to fund their efforts.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has identified gold operations as ``a vital source of revenue . . . for the RSF,'' and as has been documented by the United Nations, these revenues go directly into fueling this conflict.

And while the true scale of this whole illicit gold network is obscured, the truth is, most of this gold is ending up in companies in the UAE. Reports have further linked not only this gold going to the UAE, but also, the notorious Russia Wagner group has been skimming off part of this and using these funds to support conflict from Wagner group not only in other proxy wars in Africa but also back to help Russia in Ukraine.

Finally, the Treasury Department has taken steps in recent months to designate certain commercial entities in the UAE for sanctions, but more can and must be done to disrupt these revenue streams. We must stop all of the revenue that is going to funding, again, the conflict where more people are displaced and die every day than in Gaza and Ukraine combined.

Through tools like the Global Magnitsky Act and Executive orders already in the books, the administration can and must hold to account not only the warring parties, but also these external actors who are aiding and abetting this conflict. And we must stop these foreign entities, some who are our allies, from arming these warring parties.

As I mentioned before, there are detailed and well-reported allegations from news organizations and from our intelligence community about foreign weapons and other support into the hands of both RSF and SAF. Media reports point to alleged involvement, as I mentioned, from many countries--Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt--into arms in this region.

And while there are decades-old arms embargoes that impact the Darfur region of Sudan, this new conflict is at a new scale and takes in wide swaths of the country that weren't in conflict in Darfur.

It is time for the United States, alongside its allies and partners, to urge the U.N. Security Council to expand the existing Darfur embargo across all of Sudan. We must make clear to all countries around the world that any foreign government or entity that is providing support for either side of this civil war, that allows it to continue to drag on--to have this massive, worst humanitarian crisis ever--those entities must be held accountable.

And beyond foreign actors ending support to warring parties, it is incumbent on all of these countries--all of these countries--many of which we have very close relationships with, to work towards a ceasefire and a civilian government in Sudan. There is also more that can actually be done here at home.

Last spring, my colleague Senator Kaine and I called on the Biden administration to issue a new temporary protective status--what we call TPS--for certain Sudanese individuals living in the United States who are unable to return to their country due to this conflict. I was pleased, in August of last year, that the administration took that step, allowing those individuals not to go back to this worst conflict in the world.

The problem is, that designation runs out next spring. And I call on the administration to extend that designation before they leave office.

One of the things that we are proud of in Virginia is that we are home to a large Sudanese diaspora. I am lucky enough to have part of that Sudanese diaspora--I am proud to have--work on my staff, one of my rising legislative assistant stars. I have heard from those members of that community on a regular basis that we have to do more.

In fact, the Sudanese people didn't ask for this war. They threw out a dictator of 30 years and said we ought to bring in a democracy. The rest of the world focused a little bit of attention, but, when it got messy, they turned away.

We need a government in Sudan that reflects the struggle that the young people and civil society groups brought in 2019 and not have that promise sniffed out.

We find ourselves about a month away from a new administration in Washington. I have worked and pledge to work with the incoming Trump administration where I can. I make the appeal right now. But Sudan should be one of those areas. We have to make sure that we show American leadership in this crisis.

The truth is, if we could actually resolve this major conflict in Africa, where we show that we care about Africans killing Africans-- supported by outside forces that we call our allies in certain ways--we can do remarkable things in terms of restoring America's image as a protector of democracy and the aspirations of people all over the world.

We have to also make sure that all of the international partners continue to work to bring humanitarian assistance and put their pressure, as well, on the funders and suppliers of the arms that go into this conflict.

There are more things the administration can do. The unfortunate truth is this probably won't be resolved by January 20. One of the things that was in the NDAA, that I know the President will sign, will be a more permanent status for the Special Envoy for Sudan. It is my hope that the Trump administration will choose someone of similar caliber to Tom Perriello to continue this critically important role.

Again, I want to thank friends like the incoming chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Jim Risch, who partnered with this. This is a bipartisan issue. We can't let it lie fallow any longer. We can't forget, when we turn on these images and we see Gaza, Ukraine, Lebanon and Syria, that there is something actually worse happening in Africa that we could help bring a conclusion to. I know we can do more. I pray we will do more.

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