Yemen

Debate between Chris Evans and Andrew Mitchell

Tuesday 28th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Chris Evans]

I fully accept that the Saudis have been invited into the Government, but what I am concerned about is the Saudis using civilians as targets and those civilians being hurt. That is when we have a humanitarian catastrophe on our hands.

[Mr Mitchell]

To be absolutely clear, the Saudis are preventing the replacement cranes from getting into Hudaydah, in spite of the fact that the Department for International Development urgently needs these cranes in order to unload vessels carrying aid, medicine and food.

[Chris Evans]

I accept the right hon. Gentleman’s point.

Clearly, ceasefires are simply the beginning of a long peace-making process. Any ceasefire needs to be enforced if it is to be successful. Without enforcement, ceasefires have a tendency to fall apart and very quickly become active armed conflicts. This can be seen in Syria and to some extent in Ukraine. UN peacekeepers are specifically intended for this very purpose, and could be deployed in Yemen to enforce a ceasefire agreement.

To conclude, this would clearly be difficult, given the wider geopolitical forces involved and the necessity of agreement among the United Nations Security Council, but it is something we must strive towards, encourage and support. Too many people have died; we cannot oversee another famine such as the one we see in Yemen at the moment.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chris Evans and Andrew Mitchell

Wednesday 26th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Mitchell]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. This agenda has been championed effectively, not least by Save the Children, and it is one reason why we prioritise social protection rather than food aid. The aim of all these policies is to try to get people off food aid into much greater food security—as seen, for example, in the project between Britain and the World Food Programme, which I talked about earlier.

[Chris Evans (Islwyn) (Lab/Co-op)]

T3. In the past decade 4 million people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and countless women and girls have been victims of sexual violence. What are the Government doing to ensure that political parties in the DRC refrain from violence during the forthcoming elections?

[Mr Mitchell]

The hon. Gentleman is right to draw attention to the importance of focusing on the DRC, because there will never be a peaceful Africa without a peaceful DRC. Britain is giving strong support to the democratic process. We have been responsible for the registering of nearly 30 million people in the run-up to the November elections, and we strongly support the United Nations force in the DRC—MONUSCO—which has a chapter VII mandate and is therefore able to protect citizens robustly, especially the women to whom the hon. Gentleman has referred.