Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 12 September (HL9993, HL9994, and HL9995), what steps they have taken to support any requests from the government of the United States to the government of South Sudan to undertake an investigation into the killing of dual British American citizen Christopher Allen in South Sudan in August 2017; and what steps they have taken independently of the government of the United States to ensure that a fair and rigorous investigation into the killing takes place.

The US Government regularly lobbies the Government of South Sudan to conduct a thorough investigation into the killing of Christopher Allen in August 2017, and UK officials in Juba remain in close contact with their US counterparts to support these efforts. Mr Allen's family have not contacted UK officials seeking independent action by the UK.

The Government of South Sudan is responsible for grave human rights violations committed by its own forces, and has failed to meet its obligations to protect its citizens, allowing a culture of impunity to persist. Parties to the conflict deliberately target and kill civilians in the knowledge that their crimes will go unpunished. Journalists and aid workers are also targeted with impunity. The targeting of those like Mr Allen who are reporting on the crisis or delivering aid is barbaric and must cease immediately.