Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of progress in building security in Nigeria and the neighbouring countries which are often entered by Boco Haram; and what assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding by the UK and EU for this purpose.
James Duddridge
We welcome the recent successes achieved by the Nigerian armed forces against Boko Haram and the establishment of the Multinational Joint Taskforce to tackle the group.
The UK is providing a substantial and increasing package of UK military, intelligence, development and humanitarian support to help Nigeria and the region tackle Boko Haram. This includes training and advice to Nigerian military units deployed against Boko Haram and £5 million to support the Multinational Joint Taskforce. However a security approach alone will not solve the conflict. We are therefore providing £8.2 million in humanitarian support and the Department for International Development are also providing £9 million through its Sahel humanitarian programme to support Nigerian refugees and other vulnerable people in Cameroon and Niger. In addition 60% of the Department for International Development’s £222 million 2015/16 development budget for Nigeria is spent in Northern Nigeria.
The UK works closely with the European Union on their programmes in the region, these include €20.5 million aid for Nigeria programmes to Counter Violent Extremism and on civil-military relations in Nigeria.
