Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support her Department is providing (a) bilaterally and (b) multilaterally to relief efforts following Cyclone Sagar in Somaliland; and if she will make a statement.

We are very concerned about the plight of the many thousands of people affected by the recent tropical storm in Somaliland in particular and flooding in Somalia more generally. The UK’s early commitment of £45m for the humanitarian response so far in Somalia in 2018 is enabling our bilateral and multilateral partners, such as World Food Programme, UNICEF, Food and Agriculture Organization, OCHA, Islamic Relief, the Somali Red Crescent Society and Save the Children, to be flexible and adapt to urgent needs as they arise. In response to Tropical Storm Sagar, existing NGO and UN partners are drawing on pre-positioned relief supplies and redirecting resources to provide urgently needed water treatment kits, tents, and health and nutrition supplies sufficient to meet the needs of more than 400,000 people in Somaliland and other affected places. The relief effort is continuing, along with assessment work to identify longer term recovery needs.