Senior representatives from over 40 countries and organizations attended the Lancaster House conference that discussed what should follow the transitional institutions in Mogadishu in August 2012 and the establishment of a joint financial management board.
Addressing the conference, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said : “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is still contacting all Somali forces who genuinely wish to see an end to the burning issue.”
UN chief Ban Ki-moon, British Prime Minister David Cameron and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were among those attending the talks in London, along with the Somali president.
“These problems in Somalia don’t just affect Somalia. They affect us all. If the rest of us just sit back and look on, we will pay a price for doing so,” Cameron said. “It’s a country where there is so little hope, where there is chaos and violence and terrorism, pirates are disrupting vital trade routes and kidnapping tourists.”
Clinton said the US would push for sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, for those “standing in the way” of progress by the fragile transitional government, the mandate for which expires in August. She also pledged an extra $64 million in humanitarian assistance to the region to help improve the lives of ordinary Somalis, blighted by famine and civil war for the past 21 years.
Ban urged the world to build on recent progress after the UN agreed to boost the African Union peacekeeping force in the country to 17,000, and after Al-Shabab rebels were driven from a key town.
While commending the efforts of the British Premier David Cameron to bring peace in Somalia, Prince Saud said Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah initiated the signing of a national conciliation agreement by Somali factions in Jeddah in 2009.
He said Saudi Arabia believed that all Somali factions without the exception of any personality or group should be involved in making a just and comprehensive solution acceptable to all parties.
The prince also pointed out that Saudi Arabia has been striving all along to reduce the poverty in Somalia.
"The last Saudi aid given to help the famine stricken Somalia people was $70 million besides a contribution of more than $53 million by the Saudi people between 2009 and 2011. This was apart from the thousands of tons of dates, other food materials, medical supplies and shelter materials supplied to the suffering people," the prince said, adding that the Kingdom has also been giving additional aid as part of the decision of the Arab summits on the issue.
Other significant themes discussed at the meeting were local stability, counter-terrorism, piracy, humanitarian aid, and international coordination on improved international handling of Somalia issues.
Somalia poses a significant threat to international security as it has become a base of terrorists and pirates. Since 1991, this failed state in the Horn of Africa has been experiencing a long, devastating, and chronic series of civil war, famine, impoverishment, and the lack of an effective government.
Two blasts were reported in Baidoa, the town recaptured on Wednesday, but the black flag of the Al-Shabab was hauled down off a flag pole in the center of town on Thursday morning.
Despite its recent reverses, the Shebab remained in defiant mood as it denounced the London conference.
“We will confront and counter, by any means possible, all the outcomes of the London conference,” the fighters said in a statement, accusing the meeting’s delegates of “prolonging the instability.”
There are doubts about whether the delegates will come up with concrete steps for Somalia when the focus is on other troubles, with Syria being discussed on the sidelines.
Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed urged the international community to make good on previous pledges, saying: “We want to know what about all those resolutions and those hopes that remain as mere words on piece of paper.”
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, whose country sent 4,000 troops into southern Somalia in October, said the Somalian government must be helped to build its own security forces.
But Kibaki added that the conference was an “unprecended opportunity” after the “remarkable progress in the recent months.”
