Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many members of Mali's security forces the UK has helped to train since 2013; and what the cost of that training has been.

The UK is committed to long-term peace and security in Mali and the wider region, including through training of Mali's security and defence forces. Our training is focussed on gender sensitisation, compliance of international humanitarian law, and protection of civilians. We also support the reduction in threats from serious and organised crime and corruption, including through capacity building of security forces. Following the military coups in August 2020 and May 2021 we temporarily suspended training of the security forces. We do not have easy access to figures from 2013. We did not have a UK diplomatic presence in Mali until 2015, with our conflict, stability and security programming starting shortly after. Since Financial Year 2018/19 we have trained around 150 security personnel at a cost of circa £850k.