Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what discussions his Department has had with the Angolan Government on the recent droughts in that country.

Southern Africa is facing an urgent humanitarian crisis due to drought and other climate-related and economic factors. In southern Angola over 500,000 people are experiencing crisis-level food insecurity. The UK is pushing to put this crisis on the international agenda. On a recent visit to the country, I met with Angola’s Minister for Environment and discussed the drought and more broadly the humanitarian situation facing the wider region.

DFID is supporting the regional response through our contributions to multilaterals, notably the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). The CERF has so far allocated just over £4.8 million to the response in Angola. Through Regional Vulnerability Analysis and Assessment (RVAA) programme, led by the Southern Africa Development Community, the UK is supporting assessments to inform humanitarian and resilience responses, including in Angola.