Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the numbers of people declared missing across Africa.

The International Committee of the Red Cross report that more than 44,000 people across Africa are registered as missing, with the overall number likely to be much higher, driven primarily by conflict and exacerbated by climate shocks and the pandemic.

Protecting civilians is at the core of the FCDO's work to prevent, manage and resolve conflicts around the world. This involves working bilaterally and multilaterally not only on resolution of conflict itself, but also to ensure that parties involved respect their obligations under international law, and to condemn violations of those obligations. The UK supported the adoption of UN Security Council resolution (2474) on Missing Persons in Armed Conflict in 2019 and is encouraging others to support the work of the International Commission on Missing Persons.

We also provide funds at country level for humanitarian assistance, including in Nigeria, which the International Committee of the Red Cross estimates accounts for more than half of the total number of missing persons in Africa. In addition, the UK's global core funding to the International Committee of the Red Cross supports, among other priority issues, its work on situations of the missing, upholding International Humanitarian Law and improving the capacity of its Central Tracing Agency through digitalisation of its systems.