Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support investigations into the recent killings of communities in Beni and the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

​The British Government is deeply concerned by the reports of mass killings in Beni. We are supporting efforts to investigate these horrific incidents, including through funding an independent researcher to assist the UN peacekeeping mission in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (MONUSCO) in understanding the underlying drivers of such killings. The UK strongly supports the work of MONUSCO as it seeks to defeat armed groups in DRC. During my visit to the DRC in August, I raised the ongoing violence in eastern DRC with Maman Sidikou, Head of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in eastern DRC (MONUSCO). In mid-November, my colleague, the Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for International Development, James Wharton MP, raised protection of civilians with the UN Deputy Special Representative for Operations and the Rule of Law, David Gressly.