The UK is providing a major new UK aid package to help screen, prevent and tackle malnutrition in Yemen, Minister for the Middle East Alistair Burt announced today.

The UN estimates that 17.8 million people do not have reliable access to food across Yemen, including 1.8 million children who are acutely malnourished.

Today’s UK aid package will screen 2.2 million children under the age of five for malnutrition and provide urgent treatment for 70,000 of the most vulnerable children.

UK aid will also:

• provide treatment to 3.2 million children suffering from childhood illnesses such as pneumonia, measles and chickenpox;
• enable 818,000 people to access water and sanitation which will help to prevent diseases from spreading; and help to prevent anaemia in 500,000 children by supporting iron and folic acid supplementation (nearly 90% of under-fives in Yemen are anaemic);
• scale up mobile health teams to provide care to the most vulnerable that might otherwise be unable to access health services.

Speaking on UN World Food Day, Minister Burt said:

The UK is extremely concerned at the deepening humanitarian crisis in Yemen, including recent reports of the growing risk of famine to millions of Yemenis who do not know where their next meal is coming from.

Children are suffering the most and are 12 times more likely to die from diseases. Today’s UK aid package will help identify cases of malnourishment earlier and provide life-saving care for those most in need.

We continue to call on all parties to this conflict to support the UN Special Envoy’s peace talks to find a political solution, which is the only way to bring the humanitarian crisis to an end.

UK aid is also supporting the World Food Programme (WFP) to support over 800,000 Yemenis with food vouchers for one month.

The UK has been at the forefront of the humanitarian response to the Yemeni crisis. It has consistently been one of the largest donors to the crisis and has helped secure vital access for food, fuel and medicine.

Last year UK aid support to UNICEF helped to successfully treat over 166,000 children for severe acute malnutrition and 1.4 million children for common illnesses.

Meritxell Relaño, UNICEF Representative in Yemen, said:

The United Kingdom, through its Department for International Development (DFID), is a key partner of UNICEF work in Yemen. Since 2016, DFID, along with other donors, has supported the humanitarian response in Yemen, particularly in the health and nutrition sectors, providing rapid response to disease outbreaks and helping vulnerable children and their mothers to access food.

Just yesterday, the United Nations warned that 13 million people in Yemen are on the brink of famine.

This renewed commitment from DFID comes at a time when we need support from our partners more than ever, to provide more than 2.5 million malnourished children with the urgent assistance they need to survive.

 Notes to editors

• Today’s UK aid package of a £96.5 million programme will fund UNICEF to tackle malnutrition in Yemen over three years. This is a multi-year commitment, and some of today’s funding is from the £170 million announced on 3 April 2018 in response to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen for this financial year (2018/2019).
• The £170 million UK funding announced in April 2018 brought the total UK bilateral support to Yemen to over £570 million since the conflict began in 2015.
• As well as supporting the frontline delivery of medical care and assistance, UK aid will also strengthen health systems in Yemen by providing expertise to public health authorities to improve policies and strengthen the monitoring of malnutrition to enable officials to make better-informed decisions.
• Minister Burt chaired a side-event at the United Nations General Assembly last month to issue a Call to Action to the UN, NGOs and donors to tackle malnutrition in Yemen more comprehensively.

A Downing Street spokesperson said:

This afternoon, the Prime Minister Theresa May met Sinn Féin to discuss the recent progress in the final stage of negotiations with European Union.

The Prime Minister gave an update on the progress that has been made over the last few days with the EU and discussed the unresolved issues relating to the backstop.

In particular, the Prime Minister reaffirmed her commitment to there being no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland and no border in the Irish Sea.

They discussed the need to restore the Northern Ireland Executive, the PM reconfirmed the UK Government’s commitment to its role in this process and that the Secretary of State for NI will be introducing legislation to ensure public services in NI will continue to be delivered.

Published 15 October 2018

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt today met Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in London to discuss the growing relationship between Turkey and the UK on areas such as bilateral trade and investment.

The Foreign Secretary raised the situation in Syria, stressing the importance of ensuring the safety of civilians in Idlib and commended Turkey for hosting over 3.6 million refugees.

The Foreign Secretary also reiterated strong concerns over the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, and the urgent need for a credible and thorough investigation.

Following the meeting, the Foreign Secretary said:

The case of Jamal Khashoggi remains deeply concerning. The UK fully supports the Turkish investigation into the incident as I reiterated in person to Mr Çavuşoǧlu today. We have been urging Saudi Arabia to cooperate fully with the investigation. There remain questions about the disappearance of Mr Khashoggi that only Saudi Arabia can answer.

To that end, we welcome King Salman’s and President Erdogan’s agreement of yesterday to establish a joint working group and the Saudi decision to ask the Prosecutor General to establish an internal investigation into Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance and hold people accountable if the evidence warrants it.

Further information

Published 15 October 2018

The ‘Future Starts Today’ report indicates that the world has reached a critical point in the need to tackle the evolution of threats faced in the current climate.

Welcoming the report, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said:

This report makes clear that we are living in a world becoming rapidly more dangerous, with intensifying challenges from state aggressors who flout the rules, terrorists who want to harm our way of life and the technological race with our adversaries. Identifying these threats means we can continue to build an Armed Forces that can stay ahead of them.

The last Strategic Defence and Security Review, published three years ago, identified four main areas of threat, including the evolution of extremist terrorism, the resurgence of state-based threats, the rapid advance of technology on all fronts and the erosion of the rules-based international order.

The sixth edition of the Global Strategic Trends report recognises the danger of those threats, but also sets out how they are continuing to speed up and intersect to create new and unparalleled risks.

It outlines how regional powers could develop nuclear capabilities with global reach, internationally accepted rules on chemical weapons are ignored, and non-state actors could acquire sophisticated missile technology. It also describes how the interaction between climate change, demand for resources and over-population drives competition, that could lead to conflict.

UK Defence has always been at the forefront of global military capabilities and has risen to meet threats ranging from global conflicts, insurgent warfare, disinformation campaigns and offensive cyber. This has ensured the UK maintains a military edge over adversaries.

The MOD’s thinktank, the Development Concepts and Doctrine Centre, worked on this comprehensive report for two years. They drew on a range of analysis across academia, business, government departments and nations from across the globe. The findings support those who formulate Defence policy, strategy and capability development, and includes a range of innovations. This has been evident in the development of the MOD’s Arctic Strategy, Space Strategy and approach to future autonomous systems.

The MOD’s research teams used a suite of research methods to provide insight into alternate, plausible futures, watchpoints and discontinuities. Through this analysis UK Defence has identified key areas that have the potential to profoundly change humanity over the coming years.

The sixth edition of the Global Strategic Trends report can be read here.

A Downing Street spokesperson said:

This afternoon, the Prime Minister Theresa May met with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to discuss the final stage of negotiations with the European Union.

The Prime Minister spoke about the real progress that has been made in recent weeks on both the withdrawal agreement and the political declaration on the future relationship. She also gave an update on the issues that still need to be resolved in relation to Northern Ireland and the backstop.

The Prime Minister emphasised that she believes that a negotiated deal is the best outcome for both the UK and for the European Union and that this deal is still achievable.

Published 15 October 2018