Gaza: Humanitarian Situation
Debate between Andrew Selous and Leo Docherty(4 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Leo Docherty
The hon. Lady makes a good point about the impact on hospitals. That is why we have tripled our aid. We are focused on channelling it through the UN agencies that can most effectively help people in hospitals, whether by the provision of fuel or other supplies. That is the groundwork that we hope will eventually unlock the political phase to improve the solution. It is humanitarian first, with the politics in tandem, which we are also doing.
Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)
The sexual violence meted out by Hamas on 7 October was horrendous. In the second half of last month, a number of Members on both sides of the House received details passed on by a doctor in Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, who said that three of his children and three of his grandchildren were among the 45 men, women and children in his house who had all been destroyed that afternoon while he was working a hospital shift. We are piling misery on misery, so as one former infantry soldier to another, I ask my hon. Friend to make sure that the British Government renew their plea for the greatest possible precision in pursuit of the terrorists so that we do not lose more civilian lives in that way.
Sudan: Atrocities
Debate between Andrew Selous and Leo Docherty(10 months, 1 week ago)
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Leo Docherty
The hon. Member raises an extremely pertinent point. The food crisis in the region is acute. It has been exacerbated by constraints in global supply, and the catastrophic impact of Putin’s war in Ukraine, in cutting off the global supply, has had a very significant impact, especially across the African continent. We will of course do all we can to improve not just conditions in the east African region, but the global supply of grain, which is where things such as the Black sea grain initiative are important on a geostrategic scale.
Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)
Africa, which will have a quarter of the world’s population by 2050, has many great and powerful economies with which we trade. So what representations have the Government made with the African Union, to which we have an ambassador based in Addis Ababa, about the role the African Union is going to play to remedy this absolutely horrendous situation?
Leo Docherty
My hon. Friend makes a very good point. I think the African Union is a very valuable partner, and we have an important role to play. At its core, this is about reform, the promotion of enterprise and societal development, and institutional capacity building. That is the route towards more sustainable and long-term economic development, which means countries will be more resilient when it comes to climate change.