To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Government of South Sudan on the deployment of UN peacekeepers in that country; and whether he plans for those peacekeepers to include UK service personnel.

We regularly discuss with the Government of South Sudan the need to cooperate fully with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) in order to allow the mission to effectively fulfil its mandate, including the protection of civilians, monitoring the human rights situation, and securing the delivery of humanitarian aid. We continue to urge them to make progress on this issue. Most recently, the UK Special Representative for Sudan and South Sudan raised this directly with President Kiir on 2 March.

We are currently in the process of deploying 379 UK troops to UNMISS. They will carry out vital engineering and advisory support, and will set up a field hospital in Bentiu.