Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of UN missions in South Sudan in protecting civilians in South Sudan.

Mr Philip Hammond

The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has had significant effect in protecting civilians, most notably the 200,000 internally displaced persons who have sought shelter on its bases. However, the mission faces a number of challenges, not least continued obstruction and access restrictions by the parties to the conflict. The UK will continue to work with UNMISS to improve the effectiveness of the mission’s operations and is working with the UN to finalise the new military deployment of 250 – 300 British troops to the Mission announced by the Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), in September 2015.