Somalia: Int’l Community Pledges for Support

World leaders and those from international organisations gathered in London for a conference on Somalia have pledged more than $300 million in aid aimed at building the Horn of Africa nation that is surfacing from decades of conflict.

 UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud are co-hosting the Somali Conference in London aimed at bolstering political stability in Somalia through development.

"The Somalia conference in London aims to capitalise on the significant progress made over the past year and to agree coordinated international support for the government of Somalia's plans to build political stability by improving security, police, justice and public financial management systems," Britain's Foreign Office said.

Fifty countries and organisations such as the UN, the African Union, the International Monetary Fund are among those present in the conference which begun Tuesday.

Britain has pledged $15.5m to help develop Somali security forces, while a further $22.5 million to strengthen its police and train judges and lawyers. The European Union said it had also pledged $58m towards the initiative.

Mr Cameron said the UK and other countries - including China, the US and South Africa - had agreed to contribute £50m ($77m) to help Somalia rebuild its security forces so they could tackle insurgents and criminal networks.

He said the support for Somalia was both urgent and necessary, warning that failure to heed the call will slip Somalia back to lawlessness.

"Radicalism is poisoning young Somali minds and breeding terrorism and extremism," Cameron said. “This is a threat to our security and if we ignore it we would be making the same mistakes in Somalia that we made in Afghanistan in the 1990s"

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told the conference that his country had entered a new era since he took over.

"We are starting to see signs of recovery and economic revival in Somalia. If we act now to receive the support from the international community the Somali government will definitely deliver the expectations…” he said.

Mr Mohamed identified the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group as one of the threats facing the country.

Three-day conference followed two international conferences held last year to support the country's move from a transitional government to a new parliament and elected president.  

Somalia had gone more than 20 years without stable central government, since the ousting of President Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

Nigeria: Scores Killed in Boko Haram Raid in Nigeria

Abuja---At least 55 people have been killed in north-eastern Nigeria after fighters from the Islamist Boko Haram group staged co-ordinated attacks, freeing over 100 prison inmates in the pre-dawn raid, the military has said.

About 200 heavily armed members of Boko Haram arrived in Borno State’s remote town of Bama in buses and pick-up trucks on Tuesday and carried out the coordinated strike, military spokesman Sagir Musa told Reuters news agency.

The gunmen who some were dressed in army uniform hit the town’s army barrack and the police station before breaking into prison and freeing 105 inmates.

“Bama's police station, army barracks and government buildings were set ablaze… Some of the gunmen attacked the military barracks but they were repelled. Ten of them were killed and two were arrested," Musa said.

22 police officers, 14 prison officials, two soldiers and four civilians including a woman and three children are among those killed in the 0400 GMT raid that lasted almost five hours.

Boko Haram is seeking to carve out an Islamist state in northern Nigeria where it has been linked to several deadly gun and bomb attacks. More than 3000 lives have been claimed in attacks related to the group since 2009 when it first launched its uprising.

Most recent include the April attack on the nearby Lake Chad fishing village of Baga where nearly 200 people were killed.

The Islamist group seems to be rising beyond a recent military offense aimed at curbing its insurgency which have escalated and become deadlier in recent past.

Boko Haram and offshoots such as the al-Qaeda-linked Ansaru, as well as associated criminal networks, pose the main threat to stability in Nigeria and beyond the West African region.

President Goodluck Jonathan has set up a committee to agree the terms of an amnesty for the rebels but Boko Haram's leader, Abubakar Shekau, has so far rejected the idea.