Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that the British Embassy in Ethiopia is resourced to quickly respond to concerns relating to human rights abuses in that country.

We are deeply concerned at human rights violations and abuses in Ethiopia's Tigray region. We condemn violations as consistent with an apparent policy of collective punishment of Tigrayans. We have and continue to press hard for unfettered access for independent international human rights organisations.

Staffing at the British Embassy Addis Ababa was supplemented by three extra humanitarian staff in late 2020, but is now returning to pre-Pandemic levels. Tigray is one of the Embassy's top priorities and staff from across the Mission, from Political to Humanitarian, are working together to respond to the fast moving situation. Staff at the British Embassy in Addis Ababa are making frequent visits to the Tigray region and have heard first hand testimony from survivors. Further to this, preparations are underway to deploy expertise from the UK Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative Team of Experts to the region, building on a specific protection mission to Shire, in the Tigray region, conducted by British Embassy staff.