Written question asked by Baroness Stern (Crossbench) on Monday, 27 June 2022, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Monday, 11 July 2022. It was answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative) on Monday, 11 July 2022 on behalf of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Cameroon: Cholera

Question: To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the government of Cameroon about the impact of the cholera outbreak in Cameroon on the welfare and safety of prisoners in that country; and what assistance, if any, they plan to offer to them to help combat the outbreak.

Answer: The state of prisons and welfare of prisoners is a sensitive subject in Cameroon and requires careful handling. The UK's partner, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), conducts prison monitoring as part of its programme in Cameroon - last year, they visited 20 places of detention and 9,247 detainees. The UK has contributed to the wider cholera response in Cameroon through core contributions to the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), which recently made an allocation of $1.7 million to WHO and UNICEF. More generally, the UK has allocated over £20 million of humanitarian support for needs in Cameroon over the last five years, and regularly calls for continued humanitarian access. We continue to engage with the UN and other humanitarian actors active across Cameroon to ensure that urgent needs are met, including most recently with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on 29 April, on the impact of the suspension of humanitarian activities.

Secondary information