Gregory Campbell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2014-05-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assistance he has offered to the Nigerian authorities to resolve the continued abduction of girls from the North East of that country.

Mark Simmonds

In the days following the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls from Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria, we have offered our assistance to the highest levels of the Nigerian government. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), spoke to the Nigerian Foreign Minister on 18 April immediately after the abductions and offered the UK’s assistance.

On 7 May the Prime Minister, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), spoke to President Jonathan and offered to send a team of UK experts to Abuja. The President accepted and the team, led by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), arrived in Abuja on 9 May. The team will provide expertise in counter-terrorism, counter-insurgency, military mentoring and training, victim support and economic development. Human rights compliance is, and will remain, an essential element of any UK assistance in Nigeria. I visited Nigeria on 14 May, and reiterated our support with President Jonathan.

We are coordinating closely with international partners. An FCO team was in Washington on 5 May for talks with the US on Nigeria. Our expert team in Abuja will be coordinating closely with a US team also in Abuja. We are also speaking to the French and are encouraging other EU partners to lend their support. Given Boko Haram’s exploitation of Nigeria’s porous borders and indications that some of the girls may have been taken to Cameroon or Chad, we are engaging with Nigeria’s neighbours.