Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking with international counterparts to help (a) prevent attacks on (i) schools, (ii) school staff and (iii) students attending schools in English-speaking regions of Cameroon and (b) promote engagement by the Government of Cameroon with peaceful campaigners for greater Anglophone autonomy.

The Government is deeply concerned about the crisis in the North-West and South-West "Anglophone" regions of Cameroon. We have raised this with the Government of Cameroon and in multilateral fora, including in a joint statement with our US, Swiss and Canadian partners in November 2021. This condemned attacks on civilians and urged dialogue. The UK also has programmes in place which aim to prevent human rights violations.

Every child has the right to a safe education. We are appalled by the attacks on schools and have called for impartial investigations to determine the perpetrators of these attacks and to bring them to justice. We also urge all parties to remain engaged with the Swiss-led process to promote a peaceful resolution to the crisis.