Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of UK-funded counter-terrorism initiatives in Africa on trends in the level of terrorism in those countries.

UK funded counter-terrorism initiatives in Africa reduce terrorism risks to the UK and to British Nationals and UK interests overseas, as set out in the CONTEST Strategy published in 2023. Across Africa, the primary risks to the UK stem from Al Qaeda affiliates such as Al Shabaab based in Somalia, and from groups affiliated with Daesh located across the continent.

We have had positive impact by supporting activities in priority countries to disrupt and degrade terrorist organisations (the 'Pursue' strand of CONTEST). Our focus is building host nations' counter terrorism criminal justice capability to tackle threats effectively, and to reduce terrorist capability and access to resources. We work hard to ensure compliance with UK human rights and legal standards.

We have also worked with a range of governments and international and multilateral partners to develop capabilities to prevent people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism (the 'Prevent' strand of CONTEST). For example, in Tunisia following the 2015 Sousse attacks in which 30 British nationals died, we worked in partnership with the Tunisian government to develop an early intervention system for people susceptible to radicalisation.

This focused counter terrorism work is designed in close coordination with wider UK-funded activity seeking to reduce conflict in places where the primary conflict actors are affiliates of global terrorist organisations, ensuring that the UK Government's efforts both target the direct terrorism risk to UK interests as well as some of the underlying drivers which may contribute to that risk.