| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa Horn |
| 'Milestone' Talks Monday to Set Somalia on Road to Recovery |
| 2013-09-16 |
| [An Nahar] The EU hosts a "milestone" international conference on Somalia on Monday aimed at underpinning economic and political recovery after two decades of bloody civil war. Some 50 high-level delegations from Africa, Europe, the Gulf and elsewhere are expected for the "New Deal in Somalia" event, gathering President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, other Somali leaders, world aid groups and global finance institutions. "We will not just be managing conflict, on Monday we will be signaling and kick-starting the consolidation of peace and stability in Somalia," said Alexander Rondos, the EU's Horn of Africa envoy. Britannia's ambassador to Somalia Neil Wigan said the conference was "a major milestone" after the country's remarkable progress over the last year." With diplomats hoping to see more than a billion euros in pledges, Wigan said "our combined efforts will maintain momentum and deliver the change that the people of Somalia desperately need." In January, Mohamud won formal U.S. recognition of his government for the first time since the 1991 overthrow of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre that plunged the country into civil war. For the past year it has seen a president, government and parliament function without interruption but the fragility of its institutions means it cannot yet be given loans and will have to accept grants. At stake Monday will be the approval of a New Deal Compact setting out the federal government's political, security and economic priorities, agreeing a fund to support the program, and ways of monitoring international support in the future. High on the current agenda is a Somali campaign to get one million children into school in a country that has one of the world's lowest enrollment rates -- with only four of every ten children in class. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 The EU? WHO? Gonna get Somalia on its feet again? Really? WHY? Yeah? On its feet. And a million of the kiddies can go back to school. WHERE is my violin. Allah mist be informed at once. Serious, on its feet. A billion Euros...I think I smell a chance at dependence here. Or a Scam. What do you smell? Do you smell another EUroweenie bending over with a roll of brass coins in his fundament? For the goon with his AK and his hand out. Allah's poor babies. |
| Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 2013-09-16 07:07 |