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 extent of the persecution of Christians in Africa.

The UK is committed to defending Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) for all. We monitor the situation for religious and non-religious communities globally and recognise the persecution of Christians and other groups on account of their faith or beliefs, including in Africa. We work multilaterally and bilaterally to promote FoRB, and it remains an important priority for our work in Africa. The Prime Minister's Special Envoy for FoRB, the Honourable member for Congleton, plays an active role in supporting this work and spoke at the launch of Aid to the Church in Need's Africa focussed report in Parliament on 24 October.