Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what practical assistance his Department is providing to the Government of Somaliland and in tackling the covid-19 pandemic.

The UK is one of the leading supporters of COVAX, designed to support equitable access to vaccines internationally. One million vaccines have been agreed for Somalia, including Somaliland, of which a first tranche of 65,000 have arrived in Hargeisa and have been distributed across all regions of Somaliland. UK officials are monitoring the progress of this process and are working with the Somaliland government and international partners to support effective rollout, including via a weekly COVID coordination meeting. We have also provided £60,000 of PCR laboratory supplies to support COVID testing capacity.