Lord David Alton has had a response to a question he asked on 26 April.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they anticipate that the Joint Analysis of Conflict and Stability (JACS) assessment for Ethiopia will be instigated; what resources will be available to the assessment; what commitment of personnel is being made to enable work on the assessment to be expedited; when they expect a first preliminary assessment to be made available; and how they plan to report the assessment to Parliament.

As you will see from the government’s response – below – the reply was less than full and frank. As a result Lord Alton has written to the government again.

The question was specifically in relation to the JACS assessment for Ethiopia. I would be grateful if you could clarify  when was the JACS assessment last conducted for Ethiopia and what were the findings, including in relation to the targeting of ethnic Tigrayans. If there was no JACS assessment, I would be grateful if you could clarify the reasons behind it. 

I understand that there would be some regular contextual analyses of the changing situation. However, considering that JACS was specially established for the analysis of conflict and instability, it would be deeply concerning if the analysis has not been done for the case of Ethiopia, especially as the early warnings were there long before the outbreak of the recent conflict. I am concerned how this has been missed. 

I look forward to hearing from you. 

Let us see what the reply will be.