Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to end sexual violence against women in Somalia.

The UK has been at the forefront of international efforts to eradicate sexual violence in conflict. We are committed to using UK expertise to help national Governments prevent and prosecute those responsible for sexual violence in conflict, to improve care for survivors, and to provide training to improve their military and police capability. The UK, together with the UN, has worked closely with the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) in the development of its national action plan for addressing sexual violence, which it announced at the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI) Summit in London in June this year.

The UK has in addition put £1 million this year into funding projects in Somalia to provide care and support to survivors including:

o Improving the response to and prevention of sexual and gender-based violence in three districts of Mogadishu (Yaqshid, Bondhere and Karaan), including the integration of support services (psychosocial, legal, and economic) within existing medical clinics;

o In Lower Juba, increasing the capacity of local authorities to prevent and respond to cases of sexual violence, improve access to health facilities for survivors and improve the documentation of sexual violence cases;

o Support for survivors of sexual violence in camps for Internally Displaced Persons in Mogadishu.

The UK was extremely concerned by recent allegations relating to the conduct of soldiers operating as part of the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM). My hon friend the member for Rochford and Southend East (James Duddridge MP), the Minsiter for Africa, raised these allegations with the AU and the relevant troop contributing countries, and an investigation is due to start imminently. The UK already supports pre-deployment training programmes for AMISOM on prevention of sexual violence, international human rights laws, and best practice in assisting women and children in the aftermath of violent conflict.