Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with its counterpart in Sudan on support for refugees from the conflict in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia.

The conflict in Tigray has had significant consequences and displaced hundreds of thousands of people, over 60,000 moving into Sudan, as well as impacting those that were already in need of humanitarian assistance. We speak regularly with Sudan about the situation in Ethiopia. The Foreign Secretary has discussed the issue with both Prime Minister Abiy of Ethiopia and Prime Minister Hamdok of Sudan, and our Embassies in Addis Ababa and Khartoum have raised with host governments.

On 14 June, I announced the UK will allocate £16.7 million to the crisis in Tigray. This will support civil-military coordination to help aid get to those in need and address famine risk through the provision of healthcare, sanitation, and nutrition. This allocation is on top of the existing £27 million in 2020-21 already directed to the response which includes £5m provided for Ethiopian refugees in Sudan, over 60,000 that have fled the conflict from Tigray.