Tag: Press Release

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 24 May 2023.

The UK Minister for Development Andrew Mitchell has announced a new package of humanitarian support for people affected by food insecurity, drought, conflict and climate change in East Africa.

• UK today pledges vital life-saving assistance to East Africa to support vulnerable communities
• new funding will support people facing the drastic impacts of drought, conflict, food insecurity and climate change in countries across East Africa including Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya
• UK support will also provide humanitarian assistance to Sudan, to help address people’s urgent needs, one month after conflict broke out in the country

The Minister for Development and Africa Andrew Mitchell will announce humanitarian aid to East Africa at the UN Horn of Africa pledging conference today [Wednesday 24 May].

This vital assistance will enable the UN and NGO partners to continue the delivery of cash support; the delivery of water and sanitation services; and the supply of specialised health and nutrition treatment.

As vulnerable countries are impacted by more frequent and more severe weather events, the UK is supporting them to adapt and build resilience for the long term. Funding will boost the climate resilience of communities and provide support for those displaced due to drought and extreme weather.

The conference is co-hosted by the UK, Qatar, Italy and the US and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). In a video statement to the UN, Minister Andrew Mitchell will pledge £143 million for East Africa, £96 million of which is going to the drought-impacted countries of the Horn.

The minister will call for long-term solutions to break the cycle of crises afflicting the region, sustainable development, and adapting to climate change.

The Minister for Development and Africa Andrew Mitchell said:

The Horn of Africa faces one of the most devastating humanitarian crises in the world. The catastrophic drought over the last 2 years has brought unimaginable suffering and millions cannot access adequate water for drinking, cooking and cleaning.

As we’ve sadly seen in Sudan, conflict across East Africa is tearing apart communities, with women and girls bearing the brunt of the violence.

Our funding could not come at a more critical moment, and it is clear that we must act now, and do all we can to save lives.

Across the Horn of Africa around 43 million people require humanitarian aid due to the devastating effects of conflict and climate change. The Horn of Africa has also experienced a drought of an unprecedented nature following 5 seasons of failed rains, with livelihood systems collapsing, millions displaced and hundreds of thousands of children forced to drop out of school.

The new UK funding will address the crisis by supporting victims of gender-based violence, providing families with access to basic services, nutritional support, emergency food and cash assistance and sustainable water supplies. As part of the UK, US and Qatar’s pledges made today, all 3 countries have partnered to commit £8.4 million for drought response and resilience support in Somalia.

The UK is also pursuing all avenues to secure safe humanitarian access in Sudan, and UK support pledged today includes £21.7 million to help address people’s urgent needs.

The UK continues to call on the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces to uphold international humanitarian law and allow life-saving humanitarian access in Sudan.

Background

• the UK has committed £143 million to East Africa for the financial year 2023 to 2024. The funding includes:
  • £42 million for Ethiopia
  • £5.8 million for Kenya
  • £48 million for Somalia
  • £18.9 million for South Sudan
  • £21.7 million for Sudan
  • £7 million for Uganda
• as a longstanding and committed donor to Sudan, the UK has contributed more than £250 million in humanitarian aid in the past 5 years
• across East Africa the UN estimates that almost 72 million people require humanitarian aid this year due to a combination of pressures, following 5 seasons of failed rains, conflict and flooding
• the FCDO will host a conference at Wilton Park 17 to 19 July to bring together key stakeholders to look at how we can improve access to climate finance for countries with high humanitarian needs
• as part of the UK’s commitment to Somalia, the US, Qatar and the UK have jointly pledged/provided £8.4 million to support urgent assistance and build resilience to the drought through the Building Resilience Communities in Somalia (BRCiS) consortium. The UK contribution to this partnership is £2 million, with the UK taking on grant management and technical leadership
• the London School of Tropical Medicine estimate 43,000 excess deaths occurred in Somalia in 2022 due to drought, half of which were children under 5 years old

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 23 May 2023.

Mr Alastair Long has been appointed His Majesty’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Bahrain in succession to Mr Roderick Drummond who will be transferring to another Diplomatic Service appointment. Mr Long will take up his appointment in late August 2023.

Curriculum vitae

Full name: Alastair Douglas Long

Place of Birth: Colchester, UK

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 23 May 2023.

Statement by Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon at the UN Security Council open debate on the protection of civilians.

Mr President, it’s a pleasure to join this debate under your stewardship, and I thank you and Switzerland for convening this important debate at this important time and acknowledge your contribution and that of His Excellency, the President of Malta and His Excellency, the President of Mozambique. Again, seeing stewardship at the head-of-state level also indicates the importance of this particular subject. I am also particularly moved by the quite specific contributions of the Minister from Ghana.

Minister Dery, you’ve outlined quite specifically the requirements on member states on how we can do more in resolving conflict. And of course, I acknowledge the valuable insights of our expert briefers, the President of the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross]. Mirjana, again, you highlighted some of the practical steps and challenges you face and the responsibilities of coordinated responses with member states and of course, the unique insights from Africa, from Madam Mounkaīla which were extremely valuable when we see drivers of climate change as a key consequence, which then drives conflict itself.

The Secretary-General himself paints a bleak picture, and rightly so, of the conflicts that rage around the world. More than 20 major live conflicts are currently gripping the globe from across all continents Myanmar, Mali, Ukraine, Sudan, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Somalia, to name but a select few. A greater number of affected civilians, as we heard from Secretary-General Guterres, are affected. Civilians who suffer, who suffer and die at the hands of disease, who suffer and die because of malnutrition and impoverishment, and they suffer and die because of these more so than military operations. This, colleagues, friends, is 2023. All of these can be avoided.

The destruction of infrastructure. As we’ve already heard, healthcare, economies and food production causes untold suffering. A point well outlined by the president of the ICRC. A quarter of a billion people in 2023 are experiencing the most acute levels of hunger caused by conflict. I myself, like others, recently saw this together with Her Royal Highness, the Duchess of Edinburgh when we visited the Democratic Republic of Congo. And a great many of them who are tragically suffering are women, who are girls. It is women who tend to eat last. It is women who eat least. It is women who end up eating not at all.

In conflict, women and girls, tragically, are also exposed to high levels of gender-based violence, including abhorrent sexual violence. As the United Kingdom’s Special Representative for Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict, I assure you I shall never accept this as an inevitable consequence of war, and nor should anyone. And working with our partners and friends, we will continue to support survivors of sexual violence and help them secure justice, help them rebuild their lives. Mr Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has also unleashed other consequences, inflation and shortages of food, as we’ve heard just now from the Minister from Ghana. And this has impacted food security far beyond the continent of Europe. We therefore once again urge Russia to end your occupation and enable life-saving Ukrainian exports to continue into the future. The Sea Grain Initiative in the Black Sea is an important part of this and it must continue to operate. Mr President, there are three areas that we, the United Kingdom, believe should be prioritised.

Firstly, we must do more to improve compliance with international humanitarian law, and we must do more collectively to show that non-compliance is truly a red line. Parties to conflict must be held to account. We welcome initiatives in countries like Somalia, where the government is showing true leadership by strengthening the focus on civilian protection and stabilisation and planning pre-deployment training in humanitarian law for its own troops. And even in Sudan, where we have immense and grave concerns, we welcome parties to the conflict, recognising their responsibilities under international law and committing to allowing and facilitating humanitarian assistance.

The United Kingdom reports voluntarily on its own compliance with humanitarian law as well, and we are encouraged to see many other member states doing the same. To tackle conflict-induced hunger, we also need a greater focus on relevant aspects of international humanitarian law. And in this respect, we are also developing a legal handbook to achieve part of this objective.

Secondly, we can make better use of our early warning systems. Resolution 2417, as we’ve heard already, is our warning system for conflict-induced hunger and reporting under it needs to be much quicker. This Council, this Security Council needs to act more promptly on the information it provides in order to save lives.

Thirdly, we must ensure coherence and coordination between our diplomatic, humanitarian development and peace initiatives. Ultimately, we can only deliver peace. We can only deliver peace with efficient and sustained diplomacy. And we will not be able to deliver sustainable peace without ensuring humanitarian support to ensure sustainable livelihoods.

The United Kingdom on our part, is steadfast in our commitment to support countries to recover from conflicts. And in this regard, next month in London, we will host the Ukraine Recovery Conference, which also importantly will be engaging the private sector in terms of reconstruction.

Mr President, our well-intentioned words must be followed by swift action. Civilians caught up in conflict need protection now. They need food now. They need essential services. Not tomorrow, but today. And they need them to be delivered promptly. And I assure you that we, the UK, remain committed to supporting those facing the brutal convergence of climate change, as we heard from Madam Mounkaīla, which drives conflict in many parts of the world. And we’ve seen that quite starkly around the Lake Chad Basin. Tomorrow, the United Kingdom will join the United States, Italy, Qatar and OCHA [United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs] to focus attention on the crisis in the Horn of Africa. We must raise urgent humanitarian funds to save lives, to save lives now. And we must also invest in long-term solutions to build resilience for the future. As we’ve heard today, again from a number of representatives, including, importantly, those from across Africa.

But ultimately, Mr President, together as we, the United Nations, we have the tools, we have the means at our disposal to prevent and end conflicts today, to restore stability, to deliver accountability and justice, and to give hope back to civilians, to give civilians their lives back. It is our moral imperative to do just that.

Thank you, Mr President.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 23 May 2023.

UK Statement on Reform as delivered by the UK’s Permanent Representative to the WTO in Geneva, Simon Manley, at the WTO General Council, 8-9 May 2023.