Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has taken recent steps to help support (a) peace building and (b) food security in the Oromia region of Ethiopia.

During the Foreign Secretary's visit to Ethiopia in December 2022 he met Prime Minister Abiy and discussed the importance of peace for the whole of Ethiopia. The UK has welcomed the commitment in the November 2022 Pretoria peace agreement to implement a comprehensive national transitional justice policy and is encouraging the agreement's full implementation. The UK's Ambassador to Ethiopia discussed the violence in Oromia in a meeting with Justice Minister Gedion in March 2023. Through our Human Rights and Peacebuilding Programme the UK is supporting the investigative capacity of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and facilitating dialogue between groups from across Ethiopia. I [Minister Mitchell] announced a £16 million package of humanitarian funding in January 2023 which will support more than 600,000 people facing the impact of drought and conflict across Ethiopia, including Oromia, with food supplies and other nutrition support.