'World's safety at risk over Somalia'

LONDON // The world's safety is at risk if it fails to tackle Somalia's problems, Britain warned an international conference in London yesterday.
The United States announced US$64 million (Dh235m) in more aid for the Horn of Africa and the British prime minister, David Cameron, made clear a lawless Somalia endangered the world.
"These problems in Somalia don't just affect Somalia. They affect us all.," Mr Cameron told the conference of delegates from more than 50 countries, including the UAE. and international organisations.
"In a country where there is no hope," he said, "chaos, violence and terrorism thrive. Pirates are disrupting vital trade routes and kidnapping tourists. Young minds are being poisoned by radicalism, breeding terrorism that is threatening the security of the whole world.
"If the rest of us just sit back and look on, we will pay a price for doing so."
Welcoming Wednesday's decision by the UN Security Council to increase the strength of the African Union force in Somalia (Amisom) to almost 18,000 from 12,000, Mr Cameron said the extremists of Al Shabab, who control many central and southern regions, must now be driven "permanently into retreat".
Mr Cameron confirmed Britain, the UAE, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands were establishing a multimillion dollar fund to aid neglected regions, including those emerging from extremist control.
The UAE pledged $2m to the fund, according to WAM, the government news agency.
"It is the people of Somalia who are the greatest victims. Their livelihoods, economic futures and well-being are being systematically deprived by the insecurity that continuing criminal activities generate," Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Foreign Minister, told the conference, according to WAM.
The UK has pledged $80m over the next three years to support Somali refugees in Kenya and Ethiopia.
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, pledged an additional $64m in immediate aid, bringing the total American emergency assistance to the Horn of Africa to $934m since the start of 2011, $211m of that going to famine-struck areas of Somalia.
Mrs Clinton also publicly backed British plans to build an antipiracy intelligence coordination centre in the Seychelles and the establishment of an international task-force to discourage ransom payments to pirates.
"The position of the United States is straightforward: attempts to obstruct progress and maintain the broken status quo will not be tolerated," Mrs Clinton told the conference.
"We will encourage the international community to impose further sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, on people inside and outside the TFG [transitional government] who seek to undermine Somalia's peace and security or to delay or even prevent the political transition."
Mr Clinton said that, as the security and political situation improved, the US would "look for ways to increase our involvement in Somalia, including considering a more permanent diplomatic presence".
Delegates at the conference welcomed the news that the Al Shabab stronghold of Baidoa in the south-west of the country had been overrun by Ethiopian and Somali forces on Wednesday.
"We have opened a space for peace and stability in Somalia," Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations, told the conference.
"It is a small space but it presents an opportunity we cannot afford to miss."
Working sessions at the conference were devoted to three areas: the political process, including the establishment of a federal government when the transitional authority's mandate ends in August; security; and international development.
During his speech, Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed called for an end to the 20-year arms embargo against his military. "We're looking for security. We're scared of tomorrow," he said.
Yoweri Museveni, the leader of Uganda, which has provided the most troops for the Amisom force in Somalia, told the conference African solutions were the best solutions to African problems.
But some Somalis voiced concerns about intervention, with memories still fresh of the 2006 invasion by Ethiopia, which drove out the Union of Islamic Courts whose brief rule had brought some stability.
Mohamed Sharif Mohamud, a former Somali and Arab League ambassador, told delegates: "Yes, there is warlordism, terrorism, piracy, and a history of natural disaster. Yes, displacement, refugees and a lack of state authority are problematic.
"But these issues result directly from sustained foreign intervention and the deliberate fragmentation of the country into fiefdoms, enclaves and tribal territories."
dsapsted@thenational.ae