Doha: Qatar offered $18m in contribution to the Somali government to help carry out four pillars dealing with consolidating the infrastructre projects, the development projects, updating the management institutions and supporting the health care and education.
Minister of State For Foreign Affairs H E Dr Khalid bin Mohamed Al Attiyah said in his address before the London Conference on Somalia that this comes in continuation to Qatar’s support with the brethren in Somalia and out of its due keenness to maintain security, stability and growth of that contry.
The conference, jointly organised by the governments of Britain and Somalia aims at attacting international support to the somali government in quest of reconstructing the state after two decades of disputes.
Dr Khalid bin Mohamed Al Attiyah stressed the need for sincere efforts to fight the chaos and corruption and hard serious working to put aside the pending differences in order to build and activate the state institutions in Somalia, to work on maintaining the national unity, restoring order and enhancing the rule of law and effective partnership between the governmental and non-governmental parties in all political, security, economic, social and humanitarian areas to realise the sustainable development for the Somali people.
He affirmed Qatar’s strict commitment to contribute to the implementation of the London conference’s resolutions to achieve aspirations of the Somali people in security, stability and sustainable development.
Some of the participant countries have offered their contributions to Somalia. Denmark pledged $70m, Britain $50m, US $40m, Europe ¤40m for the army, Qatar $18m and Turkey $10m.
Representatives from more than 50 countries and organisations attended the one-day meeting, aimed at helping Somalia in its recovery from over two decades of conflict.
Somalia has been torn asunder by factional fighting since 1991 but has recently made progress towards stability. In 2011, Al Shabaab insurgents retreated from Mogadishu and last year new government institutions emerged, as the country ended a transitional phase towards setting up a permanent, democratically-elected government.
About 260,000 people died in the famine in Somalia between October 2010 and April 2012, according to a recent report.
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