Nigeria: Chibok Abductions

Lord Bishop of Oxford Excerpts

Wednesday 14th May 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Warsi]

My Lords, in the midst of this horrific situation, Her Majesty’s Government, and indeed this country, can be rightly proud of the fact that we were the first Government to offer assistance, which we did within hours of the incident. Within two days, the Foreign Secretary spoke to Foreign Minister Wali; we were the first country, along with the US, to send a team; we are leading the international effort; and Mark Simmonds, the Minister with responsibility for Nigeria, is in Nigeria as we speak. I am also pleased to repeat the Prime Minister’s announcement of earlier today that we have provided surveillance aircraft, a military team to embed with the Nigerian army in its HQ and a team to work with US experts to analyse information on the girls’ location. We are going beyond just military support by providing support and funding to the safe schools initiative spearheaded by Gordon Brown in his capacity as UN special envoy for global education. All noble Lords in this House can be rightly proud of the way that HMG have responded.

[The Lord Bishop of Oxford]

My Lords, would the Minister agree with the comments made by the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury last weekend to the effect that, however abhorrent we may feel the organisation to be, it is necessary to engage in some way with Boko Haram and to do that at different levels? If that is the case, would the Minister give some indication of what kind of support or encouragement the Government are giving to that dialogue between Boko Haram and the Government of Nigeria?