Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, in the light of continued reported human rights abuses in Darfur, whether they will oppose (1) the withdrawal of all the remaining United Nations African Union Peacekeepers (UNAMID) from Darfur by June 2020, and (2) the closure of the remaining UNAMID team sites by December 2019, at all forthcoming meetings of the UN Security Council; and whether they will raise at those meetings the failure to hand over closed UNAMID bases for civilian purposes and their current occupation and use by Sudan's Rapid Support Forces.

We will continue to support a gradual, conditions-based review of the conditions for the exit of the UN/Africa Union hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) and await the outcome of the UNAMID Strategic Review, which will take account of the current circumstances in Sudan.

Despite recent reports of violence in areas of Darfur since the removal of Bashir as President and the establishment of the Transitional Military Council, the security situation on the ground has evolved in much of Darfur, and therefore we supported the Security Council's decision in June 2018 to reconfigure UNAMID. However, we recognise that the security situation remains fragile. Our priority is to ensure that changes made to the Mission are sensible, with appropriate review points, and to make sure that a smaller, more flexible UNAMID is still able to fulfil the core components of its mandate.

At the UN Security Council, we have urged fellow Council members closely to monitor the impact of UNAMID's reconfiguration, and carefully consider whether the situation on the ground remains conducive to further changes. We are in regular contact with UNAMID and are monitoring the reconfiguration of the Mission closely.