Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies on UN MINUSMA of the arrest of 49 Ivorian soldiers linked to MINUSMA in Mali on 10 July 2022.

We are concerned about the reported arrest of personnel from Cote d'Ivoire linked to the UN Peacekeeping mission, MINUSMA. We are in touch with MINUSMA to verify the reports. We continue to urge the transitional authorities of Mali to respect MINUSMA's freedom of movement, as we did during last month's renewal of MINUSMA's mandate by the UN Security Council. Restrictions impact on the mission's ability to deliver its mandate and on the safety and security of peacekeepers. Following reports of a massacre in Moura, central Mali, in March this year, I called on the transitional authorities to ensure unfettered access to MINUSMA to carry out an investigation into the allegations.