Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with her international counterparts on the humanitarian situation in Somaliand.

The UK is deeply concerned by the humanitarian situation across the Horn of Africa. Somaliland declared a drought emergency on 13 January 2022, indicating 810,000 people are in need of humanitarian assistance.

The UK is providing urgently-needed humanitarian assistance to those most affected across Somalia, including Somaliland. We acted early in our response to the humanitarian situation, including initial humanitarian funding of £14.5 million. In April, the UK also played a critical role in convening the recent UN Horn of Africa Drought Roundtable which took place in late April in Geneva which mobilised roughly US $400 million in new funding. I [Minister Ford] announced an additional £25 million for famine prevention across Somalia. This raises our total humanitarian spend in Somalia, including Somaliland, to £39.5 million in 2022 alone. We continue to engage closely with our international partners to increase life-saving support from the international community. I have written to World Bank President Malpass this week urging further action on food security in the Horn of Africa.