[Lord Speaker] Second oral question,
Baroness Wheeler on behalf of Lord Collins of Highbury.
[Baroness Wheeler] Thank you.
On behalf of my noble friend, and with his permission,
I beg leave to ask the question standing in his name on the Order Paper.
[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon] My Lords,
we welcome the cessation of hostilities between the government of Ethiopia
and Tigrayan forces and subsequent uplift in aid deliveries.
But the humanitarian situation remains dire for those impacted by the conflict.
We are, of course, in regular touch with Ethiopian and Tigrayan leaders
and the AU's high representative, Olusegun Obasanjo,
and are working closely with the G7, the UK's special envoy
for the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea, raised with Ethiopian PM Abiy
this very issue in May.
[Baroness Wheeler] Thank you.
The minister will know the huge scale of suffering in northern Ethiopia
through hunger and malnutrition, with the UNOCHA
reporting up to 3 million people desperately in need of food aid.
Despite the welcome increase in supply there are continued
reports in some parts of Tigray that internally displaced
people are still resorting to eating wild plants to survive.
What steps are the government taking to end the continued
humanitarian blockade and ensure that aid is received
in all parts of Tigray?
[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon] My Lords, I agree with the noble Lady
that the challenge is immense, in Ethiopia and across, particularly,
9 million people in northern Ethiopia are in need of lifesaving aid
due to the conflict and nearly 30 million people require
lifesaving humanitarian aid throughout Ethiopia in 2022.
The UK has been working with our UN partners.
We were involved at the very first set of convoys that went in
to provide humanitarian relief and continue to do so.
We've been looking and lobbying the Ethiopian government to restore access
to cash, banking and communications, and since November 2020,
the UK has provided more than £86 million to support vulnerable crisis affected
communities across Ethiopia.
Reaching communities in Tigray, Afar, Amhara, Oromia and Somali regions.
[Baroness Sugg] My Lords, around 26,000 women and girls need services
following conflict related sexual violence.
And this violence has led to babies being born and their mothers ostracised.
Can my noble friend the minister provide an update
following the deployment of the UK Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict
team and say when their report will become available?
[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon] My Lords, as my noble friend will be aware
CRSV remains a key priority for the UK government and the Foreign Secretary
has made sexual violence and conflict one of her top priorities.
In northern Ethiopia the UK has provided £4
million to help support survivors of sexual violence.
My noble friend is correct.
We have deployed experts and we're working with UNICEF, UNHCR
in ensuring that full support can be provided to survivors.
I'll be pleased to provide
a detailed briefing to my noble friend on the detail of our support
and also the focus we hope to bring at the PSVI conference in November.
[Lord Alton of Liverpool] My Lords,
my Lords, has the noble Lord had a chance to look at the link
which I sent him over the weekend of a French documentary,
the first in 18 months to be undertaken by international independent journalists
who had access to Tigray, entitled "Tigray, the Land of Hunger"?
And it develops a point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Wheeler.
It's about the deliberate starvation of the people of Tigray, which,
my Lords, is a war crime.
Does the noble Lord agree that with 6 million people
under siege, starving to death, the situation that will only be worsened
by the blockades in Ukraine that Tigray is without
electricity, internet, banking services and medical supplies.
And the situation for them is dire.
When will the FCDO JACS report - the review of joint
analysis and conflict stability - in Ethiopia be completed?
And are we preserving the evidence so that those responsible
for atrocity crimes will be brought to justice?
Does he agree that there can be no peace without justice?
[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon] My Lords, on the noble
Lords, final point, I totally agree with the noble Lord
and we are ensuring, both through the deployment of experts
and working with key international
partners, that we do exactly as the noble Lord suggests, is protecting the evidence
so we can bring perpetrators of these crimes to justice.
The situation in terms of the report, because now it has been enhanced through
our ability to provide humanitarian support, is also being updated.
And I regret to say to the noble Lord, I mean, we were just talking about homeworking,
when you are a Foreign Minister home working perhaps is also not part and
parcel of the job, although this weekend I spent most of my time in Birmingham,
so I haven't had time to read the report for the OSCE plenary.
But I will look at the link the noble Lord has sent me.
[Lord Purvis of Tweed] My Lords,
with the World Food Programme estimating today
that 40% of the population of Tigray
are now with extreme lack of food.
And with this now spreading with rising hunger in Amhara and Afar
regions neighbouring and in Sudan, where I was three weeks ago and in South Sudan,
and with now an estimate that Somalia may have a famine
for the first time in very, very many years, the Horn of Africa
will see, on an unprecedented level, hunger.
Can I reiterate my call for the UK government to convene a London
summit on hunger to coordinate the international effort.
I applaud what the UK is doing, but it is not enough
and nor were the rest of the international community without that.
Without that coordination, we will see
potentially hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people die
this summer of something that is absolutely preventable.
[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon] My Lords, I agree with the noble
Lord about the need for coordination, and I, as I said earlier, that's why
we are working, particularly with key UN agencies who have been among the first
to gain access to some of the regions that the noble Lord himself has highlighted.
And we are looking specifically at the other regions, as I said earlier,
including Oromia and Somali and Amhara regions.
However, the point is well made.
We are coordinating our efforts, whether it requires an international conference
specific to this issue.
I think there are a broader range of conferences
currently taking place where this particular key issue of food security
and the issue of famine relief should be central to the thinking and the outcomes.
[Lord Anderson of Swansea] My Lords, one of the tragedies of our time
that just a few years ago Ethiopia was considered a model.
One of the African success stories.
Since when the Nobel prize-winning president has alienated
minorities, brought in Eritreans on his side and genuinely helped
to cause the humanitarian crisis, which is the subject of this question.
Was this matter raised at the
recent CHOGM summit in Kigali
because of the proximity of Uganda and Kenya?
And what can we do in terms of co-ordination?
[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon] My Lords, first of all, I agree with the noble Lord
about the tragedy of what's happened in Ethiopia, and of course he is right.
Prime Minister Abiy was very much at the forefront of bringing peace
and security to the country and the surrounding region as well.
And it's deeply, deeply tragic that we've seen the conflicts
unravel in the way we are.
However, there is a silver lining to this very dark grey cloud,
not just in terms of humanitarian support, but the recent announcement
on all sides to agree for discussions and talks to take place.
And we are fully supportive of those particular efforts.
On the issue of CHOGM, of course, we raised the issue of food
security, in particular, the issue of conflict prevention.
And in bilateral discussions, the Foreign Secretary and my colleague,
the Minister
for Africa, raised these issues directly with the government of Ethiopia.
[Lord Singh of Wimbledon] My Lords, would the noble Lord, the minister, agree
that our selling arms to neighbouring
Eritrea, a country with a dismal human rights record
and an active participant in the maiming and killing in Tigray
is not exactly helping towards
a peaceful resolution.
[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon] My Lords, again, without getting too much into the arms
sales issue, as I've said repeatedly from the dispatch box,
we have a very rigid policy when it comes to arms and defence sales
across the world, and those same principles are applied irrespective
of which country may be requesting that support or indeed assistance from the UK.
[Lord Browne of Ladyton] My Lords,
this conflict is
is a humanitarian disaster of monumental proportions.
I mean, 9 million
people have been affected by it and about half a million people have died.
So turning to the peace process which has been proposed,
the TPLF does not trust the African Union
to lead the peace process and instead wants Kenya to lead the process.
So given that on Thursday of last week, Prime Minister Abiy's spokesperson spoke
very positively about the relationship between Ethiopia and Kenya
and the respective relationships between Prime Minister Abiy and
President Kenyatta.
Should we not be arguing for the Kenyan government
to work alongside the AU and its envoy as a compromise solution?
Surely with what is at stake that is what is necessary.
A compromise.
[Lords] Hear! Hear!
[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon] My Lords, the noble Lord,
makes a very valid
proposal, and I assure the noble Lord in our engagement with Kenya,
the importance of the situation in Ethiopia is very much part
and parcel of our discussions.
I think there will be a change of leadership very shortly in Kenya,
with President Kenyatta stepping down.
But it's equally important that we engage more proactively to ensure whoever then
goes on to lead Kenya is fully engaged on finding a solution to this process.
[Viscount Waverley] My Lords, the question of arms sales
is being raised, if really, would the minister accept
the consistency by the United Kingdom on the provision of giving licences
for arms sales around the world would actually be extremely helpful
rather than the current inconsistent
way the issues are addressed.
But would the minister concur that peace in this troubled region would be enhanced
by sustained and unhindered
humanitarian access, the restoration of internet services,
banking services
and the bringing to an end of youth conscription
would also, throughout the region, be most welcome.
[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon] My Lords, on the noble Lords, second
suggestion I have already in my earlier answers, alluded to the fact
that some of the very points the noble Lord has raised
are being discussed directly, and one hopes that the outcomes
of these discussions as and when they take place will see
a real focus on the priorities as the noble Lord has articulated.
On the issue of arms sales, I have to disagree.
As I said, we have a process that is followed which we seek
to follow in every negotiation, every discussion we have.
And of course there's always learnings
to improve that process and we adapt those accordingly.