Parliamentary Search

Written question asked by Lord Stunell (Liberal Democrat) on Friday, 13 March 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 17 March 2009. It was answered by Bob Ainsworth (Labour) on Monday, 23 March 2009 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Sudan: Military Aid

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much his Department has spent on the provision of defence training in Sudan in each year since 2003; what training activities were provided; and which (a) provider and (b) recipient organisation participated in each activity.
Answer

All training delivered by the MOD in Sudan is to members of the Joint Integrated Units (JIUs), which are made up of equally sized elements of the armies of North and South Sudan. JIUs were established as a peace-building measure under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the war between North and South. The CPA mandates members of the international community who supported the peace process, including the UK, to provide training and other support to the JIUs.The MOD does not, however, directly fund any training in Sudan; instead the UK training programme is financed by the tri-departmental Conflict Prevention Pool. It has included the training of the JIUs' first de-mining Company, delivered by the International Mine Action Training Centre in Kenya, a wide range of individual courses conducted at military establishments in the UK as well as conflict resolution workshops and English language training conducted in Sudan. Specific information for 2003-04 and 2004-05 is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost, but is assessed to have been very low as we then had no Defence Section in Sudan. Since then the following training activities have been provided:Financial year 2006-07—£265,000"International Peace Support Briefing Programme (2 students)""International Collective Training Briefing Programme (2)""International Border Security Management Briefing (2)""Managing Defence in a Democracy (now Managing Defence in a Wider Security Context)—Nairobi (6)""Managing Defence in a Democracy (now Managing Defence in a Wider Security Context)—UK (3)""De-mining training, Nairobi—1 Company (120) of JIUs. British Peace Support Team—East Africa International Mine Action Training Centre"Financial year 2007-08—£248,000"Managing Defence in a Democracy (now Managing Defence in a Wider Security Context)—Nairobi (4)""Managing Defence in a Democracy (now Managing Defence in a Wider Security Context)—UK (2)""Commissioning Course (2)""International Peace Support Briefing Programme (2)""International Collective Training Briefing (2)""International Battle Group Commanders Course (6)""English language training—Sudan (160)""De-mining Training, Nairobi—1 company (120). British Peace Support Team—East Africa International Mine Action Training Centre"Financial year 2008-09—£282,000"Advanced Command and Staff Course (2)""International Peace Support Operations (7)""English language training—Sudan (up to 144)""Train the Trainer (4)""International Logistic Officers Course (1)"In financial year 2008-09 the UK also provided £750,000 through the Africa Conflict Prevention Pool to the UN to provide infrastructural support for the JIUs.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
490 c18-9W; 264326
Session
2008-09
Subjects
Sudan Military aid
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk