Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what diplomatic steps he is taking to prevent Boko Haram blocking UN aid to refugees in Cameroon.

The UK was one of the first donors to respond to the humanitarian crisis across the Lake Chad Basin and we have recently announced £80m in humanitarian funding over and above the £90m already contributed. Our High Commissioner in Cameroon met President Biya on 17 November and re-affirmed the United Kingdom's continued commitment to supporting Cameroon and its neighbours, including through the Multi-National Task Force in the fight against Boko Haram. We will be deploying additional capacity to Cameroon to support that effort.

We are also leading efforts to mobilise other members of the international community to consider where they can do more and to raise awareness of this humanitarian crisis globally. This has included chairing a Lake Chad Basin meeting in the margins of UN General assembly in September 2016 and co-chairing an event with ECHO in the margins of the WFP Executive Board meeting in November 2016. We are also encouraging UN agencies to deploy more field staff to the region.