Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of reports that several children were killed in a military bombing raid against illegal armed groups in Guaviare, southern Colombia on 2 March 2021.

The UK remains extremely concerned by the continued recruitment of minors by illegal armed groups in Colombia. We most recently raised this issue on 21 April at the UN Security Council meeting, at which the UN Secretary General's Special Representative presented his quarterly report on Colombia's peace process. We urged all armed groups to immediately release all minors from their ranks, also expressing our concerns about the tragic deaths of minors during Government operations against armed groups in Guaviare last month, and welcomed the Government's investigation into these deaths.

The UK is an active permanent member of the United Nations Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC), which leads the international response to violations committed against children in conflict. We regularly raise concerns with the Colombian Government, and at the UN, and will continue to do so.