Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of (a) inter-community violence, (b) political instability and (c) the risk of genocide in the Central African Republic.

We remain deeply concerned by the violence in the Central African Republic (CAR). Despite political progress in 2016, and good co-operation with the international community from the CAR government, the security situation outside of the capital city Bangui is deteriorating. This is having a heavy impact on the civilian population with thousands killed and tens of thousands displaced in 2017 alone. We are aware of United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary General Stephen O'Brien's report, which suggested that CAR is presenting "early warning signs of genocide". It is true that the violence in CAR is often divided along religious lines, however, social, economic and political factors have been the primary drivers. We continue to call on the CAR government to implement the National Plan for Peacebuilding and Recovery, and will also be addressing, with our international partners, the human rights and humanitarian problems in CAR at the UN Human Rights Council later this month.