Democratic Republic of Congo
Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

Ian Lucas (Wrexham, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what advice, assistance and financial aid the Government provides bilaterally to the security forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Henry Bellingham (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Africa and the United Nations), Foreign and Commonwealth Office; North West Norfolk, Conservative)

The Government does not provide financial aid to security forces overseas. But in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), we fund, or co-fund the following projects:

Training DRC army staff to speak English: a £150,000 a year, three-year project, implemented by the British Council. This enables closer co-operation of Congolese forces with the UN peacekeeping force, the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the DRC.

Funding for three senior staff in the EU mission in support of security sector reform.

Assistance to military and civilian justice authorities through mentoring and technical and logistical support to help tackle impunity.

A £60 million Department for International Development police reform programme, including: community police training and resource management; capacity-building and legal support to community policing at the Ministry of Interior and in local government; and support for civil society groups providing oversight of policing.