London conference seeks road map for Somalia

Tackling terrorism, piracy and a humanitarian crisis are the three main reasons why the British government is hosting a London conference on Somalia this Thursday, drawing together leaders from over 40 countries across the East African region and beyond. Despite a reputation as ‘the world’s most failed state’, Britain’s foreign secretary William Hague said Somalia is facing a “moment of opportunity” as political leaders there came together in recent days to try and end the two decades long conflict.
Somalia was also one of the countries that Pope Benedict spoke of in his address to diplomats last January, urging the international community to find a solution to the crisis. British ambassador to the Holy See, Nigel Baker tells Philippa Hitchen what his government hopes to achieve through this conference and why the Vatican has also offered its support for this international event….

Listen:

“For 20 years Somalia has been in the ‘too difficult’ tray for too many countries….but piracy, terrorism, the appalling humanitarian situation – these affect Britain and other countries as well and the whole region has been struggling to manage with the fall out from a country where children have known nothing but guns for the last 20 years, so we felt it was time the international community came together and tried to find a coherent strategy for tackling the many complex issues that Somalia has….

Any solution has to be a solution owned by the Somalis themselves… this isn’t just some international conference, it’s crucially the representatives from Somaliland, from Puntland, from Mogadishu, from other regions and it’s from the regions that we’re seeing what one might call the first shoots of regained stability and it’s very important the international community supports those.
Stability is clearly the first step – without that, investors aren’t going to come into the country. Another area which we are looking at is the creation of some kind of joint financial management board which will work closely with functioning Somali authorities which will give the state greater leverage….

Estimates are that between 50 and 100.000 Somalis died since famine was declared last year – we’re no longer officially in a state of famine but 250.000 remain at risk with refugees across the country and surrounding region…our hope is that by tackling the root causes we can also tackle this perennial problem in the region, this famine that has affected generations of children.

I think the last official (Catholic) representative, the bishop of Mogadishu was killed in 1989… we were very struck that in his address to diplomats on January 9^th the Pope made a specific appeal to the international community to try and find a solution to the crisis in Somalia…although there isn’t a big Christian presence there, I think mobilising the Christian voice and aid agencies - who are already very active on the ground - is an area where we can definitely work together.