Somali leaders and about 50 international delegations met in Brussels to endorse the plan, which includes steps to boost output, foster political dialogue and improve day-to-day security after decades of debilitating civil war.
The 28-nation European Union, already the largest donor to the horn of Africa country, led the financial pledges, committing EUR 650 million.
“I am glad to note that pledges today reached EUR 1.8 billion, backing with financial means these new priorities and framework,” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told the closing session of the conference.
Somalia plunged into two decades of civil war and lawlessness after the overthrow of President Siad Barre in 1991.
But donors have seen signs of stabilization since the African Union’s peacekeeping troops helped drive Islamist out of the capital Mogadishu and many other strongholds in central and southern Somalia.
The country of 10 million people is one of the poorest in the world, with per capita income of just USD 600 a year. (USD 1 = EUR 0.7542)
No amount of money or any ‘deals’ can settle & stabilize Somalia,unless its foreign-occupied territories are restored . The Euro-Colonialists carved up Somalia amongst themselves into their “Colonies during their notorious “Scramble for Africa” (1885): Djibouti(France),C.Somalia-Mogadishu(Italy),N.Somalia-Hargeisa(Britain),W.Somalia(Britain attached it to their ‘Kenya Colony’ as NFD, and Haud/Ogaden districts to Haile Sellassie’s Abyssinia(Ethiopia).Somalis fought back fiercely under the leadership of Sheikh Abdillahi Hassan. Somalis have never accepted this ‘Fragmentation’ of their Homeland.At ‘Independence’ these territories were not restored to Somalia & ‘Wars’ have flared up every now & then over these territories.
EU+USA are currently eager to ‘pacify’ & ‘stabilize’ the Horn of Africa because they have now launched a 2nd, “Scramble for Africa” (21st Century), mainly to grab the newly-discovered mineral resources in Greater Somalia. There WILL be opposition to it & no long-term ‘stability’ is likely ,unless the Reunification of Greater Somalia is guaranteed.