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Donors pledge $213 million for Somalia
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-24 11:15

 

Donors pledge $213 million for Somalia
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana (L) talks with Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed (R) during a joint news conference at the end of the International Somali donors conference in Brussels April 23, 2009. [Agencies]

More than 130 merchant ships were attacked in the region last year, an increase of more than 200 percent on 2007, the International Maritime Bureau said. A tenfold increase was noted in the first three months of 2009.

"If we only treat the symptoms, piracy at sea, but not its root causes -- the decay of the state and poverty -- we will fail," European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso warned.

Non-governmental organisation Oxfam said the conference was being held at a critical moment for 3.2 million Somalis desperately in need of aid, more than a million of whom have fled their homes to avoid fighting in the last two years.

"The piracy issue that has grabbed international headlines is a symptom of deeper issues that have gone un-addressed ever since the collapse of the national government in 1991," Oxfam's Robert Maletta said.

Ahmed underlined: "It is our duty to pursue these criminals not only on the high seas but also on terra firma."

"Solving this problem will require a radical solution," he said.

Ban said security efforts should focus on building capacity, notably within the police force, and providing political and financial support to the troubled African Union peacekeeping mission dubbed AMISOM.

However he said that the United Nations should take a cautious approach to sending its own peacekeeping mission, and only "when the security conditions are appropriate."

The 4,300-troop AMISOM force -- the only security presence backing the government -- is well short of the 8,000 soldiers initially planned and is regularly attacked by the Islamist Shehab militia.