Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the 2018 UK-Nigeria security and defence partnership in addressing (1) insecurity, (2) violence, and (3) extremism, in Nigeria.

The UK and Nigerian Governments signed the Security and Defence Partnership in August 2018 with the objective of working together to tackle regional and global threats including terrorism, conflict and intercommunal violence, human trafficking, serious organised crime, cybercrime and piracy. To achieve this, we agreed to deepen our collaboration in a range of areas, including through capacity building for the Nigerian Police and Armed Forces; funding and operational support to the Multi-National Joint Taskforce; and funding for Nigerian-led stabilisation work in North East Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin: the region affected by extremist terrorist groups including Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa. Additionally, we agreed to support psychosocial activities and community reintegration efforts as part of Operation Safe Corridor, a Nigerian-run demobilisation, de-radicalisation and rehabilitation (DDR) programme for repentant, low-level members and associates of these groups.

We assess that progress has been made in many areas. For example, UK military personnel trained over 11,500 Nigerian military personnel on topics including human rights compliance, rules of engagement, countering-IEDs and first aid in 2019/20. Many of those trained have been deployed on operations to tackle the terrorist threat in North East Nigeria. Furthermore, in July 2020, 601 men completed the DDR programme and are awaiting community reintegration. This is in addition to 280 males who have already completed the programme and returned to their communities.

However, insecurity, violence and extremism in Nigeria remain a serious concern. We will continue to work closely with Nigeria to address these issues.