Africa: Private Military and Security Companies

(asked on 28th February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the (a) levels of uptake and (b) progress towards implementation of the International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers in sub-Saharan African and Sahelian states.


Answered by
Vicky Ford Portrait
Vicky Ford
This question was answered on 8th March 2022

Compliance with the International Code of Conduct for Private Security Providers (ICoC) is monitored by the International Code of Conduct Association for Security Providers (ICoCA). The FCDO supports ICoCA through a seat on the ICOCA Governing Board, alongside two civil society board members from Nigeria and Kenya. Eight of the top ten countries with the most ICOCA members including affiliate Private Security Companies (PSC) are in Sub-Saharan African and Sahelian states. In order these are Somalia, Nigeria, Kenya, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Tanzania and Ghana.

During the pandemic, ICOCA maintained engagement in the region through virtual means, which led to the creation of a Montreux Document Forum/ICOCA Membership Working Group in Nigeria. Pre-pandemic, ICOCA outreach and field missions to Kenya and Tanzania generated interest from PSC companies and their clients as did ICOCA's visit to South Sudan (November 2021), supported by the FCDO funded ICOCA procurement guide. FCDO funding also delivered training for PSCs on Preventing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA). Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan had the second, third and fifth largest number of PSC staff respectively to complete the PSEA training.

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