To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assistance, in any form, they are providing to the government of Cameroon in their campaign against Boko Haram insurgency in the Far North Region and in efforts to bring lasting peace to the Far North Region.
Answered on
1 February 2017
The UK is committed to supporting Cameroon and its neighbours in the fight against Boko Haram. We provided £5 million to support the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) a regional force against Boko Haram of which Cameroon is a member.
In our engagement in the region, including with President Biya, we regularly re-affirm our commitment to supporting Cameroon and its partners in defeating Boko Haram while also encouraging them to address the root causes of violent extremism. We worked with the Mayor of London's Strong Cities Initiative to send five Cameroonian mayors to participate in the first annual summit in Turkey in May 2016, to help share ideas among municipal authorities globally in efforts to counter violent extremism at the city level.
We are deeply concerned about the scale of the humanitarian crisis across the Lake Chad Basin. This will require a sustained, multi-year response to support communities devastated by the conflict. The UK has increased its humanitarian support to the region and will provide an additional £80 million of humanitarian aid to help provide support to some of the 10.7 million people across the Lake Chad Basin who are in urgent need due to the conflict. This is in addition to almost £90 million of humanitarian aid that we are already delivering in the region.