Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when the Government first allocated funding to support Somaliland's police Rapid Reaction Unit; and how much that funding was until it ended in March 2020.

The UK has supported security and justice sector reform in Somaliland since 2011. This has included work to improve the effectiveness of the judiciary and prosecutors, the police, coastguard and army, in compliance with international law, and in line with international human rights standards. UK funding for Somaliland's Police Rapid Reaction Unit ended in March 2020. Our efforts to improve Somaliland's security sector now focus on support for the Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) of the Somaliland Police, which has successfully established a state-of-the-art investigation and detentions facility. The CTU has also achieved significant operational successes, including the prosecution of high-interest terrorism cases.