British Prime Minister David Cameron warned on Tuesday that failure to support the rebuilding of Somalia would lead to “terrorism and mass migration”, as he opened an international conference aimed at helping to end more than 20 years of conflict.
Representatives of more than 50 countries and organisations attended the London meeting, which is co-hosted by Cameron and Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
The meeting is aimed at boosting political stability in the impoverished Horn of Africa country, which has had no effective government since 1991.
It is also expected to pledge action on rape, which the United Nations says is “pervasive” in Somalia.
Opening the conference, Cameron praised improvements in Somalia’s security in recent months, but warned that huge challenges remained in preventing it from sliding back into abject lawlessness.
“To anyone who says this isn’t a priority or we can’t afford to deal with it, I would say that is what we’ve said in the past and look where it has got us — terrorism and mass migration,” Cameron said.
“These challenges are not just issues for Somalia. They matter to Britain — and to the whole international community. Why? Because when young minds are poisoned by radicalism and they go on to export terrorism and extremism, the security of the whole world is at stake.”
Britain has raised eyebrows by inviting Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who faces an international trial for crimes against humanity, to the meeting.
A British government source said the invitation counted as “essential contact” with Kenyatta, who is due to go on trial at the International Criminal Court in July.
Downing Street said Kenya played a “vital” role in Somalia, because it has nearly 5,000 troops stationed there and it hosts more Somali refugees than any other nation.
The UN, African Union and International Monetary Fund are among the organisations attending.
Somalia has been battered by conflict since 1991 but a new UN-backed government took power in September, ending more than a decade of transitional rule.
Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab militants were driven out of the Somali capital Mogadishu by African troops in August 2011, but the Islamists have carried out a series of brutal attacks in recent months.
About a dozen people were killed in the city on Sunday when a suicide bomber rammed a car full of explosives into a government convoy carrying officials from Qatar. No one immediately claimed responsibility.
Despite the unrest, Somalia appears to be slowly turning a corner, with businesses reporting growth in activity. Business is booming at the country’s ports in particular.
Britain last month became the first EU country to re-open an embassy there since the conflict broke out, while the UN Security Council set up a special mission to Somalia last week that will bring in up to 200 security, human rights, political and financial experts to work with the fledgling government.
Somalia’s president urged the international community to pour investment into his country, arguing that his government’s progress over the last year had defied sceptics.
“We are here today to begin a four-year process that must begin with considerable investment and support but which I hope will finish with very little,” he told the conference.
“My vision is for a federal Somalia at peace with itself and its neighbours and which poses no threat to the world; a Somalia with a resurgent economy.”
Mohamud’s government remains weak, and large parts of Somalia are still carved up between rival militias.
Pirates operating from the Somali coast are still causing trouble for international shipping companies, although Cameron said piracy had dropped 80 percent since London hosted the first Somalia conference in February 2012.
A second conference was held in Istanbul four months later.
Campaigners Human Rights Watch say rape by soldiers and gunmen is an “enormous problem” in Somalia.
Britain and the UAE last month announced £1 million ($1.6 million, 1.2 million euros) each to help tackle sexual violence.
More than a million Somalis are refugees in surrounding nations and another million are displaced inside the country, often living in terrible conditions.
Somalia was also hit by a terrible famine between 2010 and 2012, leaving almost 260,000 people dead, half of them children, according to the UN.
Source: AFP
Hey Isaaq, that's the leader (Cameron) of the nation you people so desperately want its approval and who have rejected you walking side by side with the PRESIDENT of the whole of SOMALIA including your desert triangle. Word on the street is that Aid from America and Britain will stop for your little desert very soon, god only knows what you will become as those old soviet equipment is starting to rust haha. Oh yeah 50 million for our security forces and more to come, buy some real 21st century guns hahaha.
Oh yeah! If that's the case why Puntland, Khatumo and Jubbland supporters have been making demonstrations in front of Lancaster House where the Conference on Somalia was going on in protest of your President? See this video. http://www.burcoonline.com/view.php?id=10518
What many cant seem to understand is that Somaliland is supported by its people! Trust me you don't want another war with us, you wont survive it. If you push our people we will fight that much harder and if you think you got a good licking in the 80s your next kick in the bullocks will seem like a soft breeze in comparison!
Cameron can say all he likes, the people of Somaliland is what matters! We were here long before the brits and we will be here long after. We were here long before siya d and his ilk and we will be here long after!
As you have mentioned in your piece, Somaliland used to trade with Sung Dynasty in the 5th century B.C. Those who got to know Somaliland during the Dictator's administration and bad mouthing Somaliland are not worth to debate with them. If they want war with Somaliland, Somaliland people are ready to defend their liberty,sovereignty and country. The British and the Europeans could promote the Southern war lords in Mogadishu as much as they want but the fact remains that Somaliland will never go back or entertain a dirty UNION that has failed in 1960. Somaliland has had the nationalistic fever in the sixties when the continent of Africa were getting their independence from the Europeans, and Somaliland threw away its government and became second class citizens in the grater Somalia that they built. That mistake will never happen again and Somaliland liberated itself from the clutches of Mogadishu and its war lords. Somaliland is ready for any constrains and obstacles that have been put in front of it and will never retreat from its position of SOVEREIGNTY, INDEPENDENCE and the progress it made for the last 22 years.
Hey, Darood Man: you ill never sit in Mogadishu and rule the Somalis that you talking about because the Isaaq man was protecting you from the other clans who own Southern Somalia. You became ALI Gailee Ba aye.