Al-Shabaab nixes Somalia’s Spring: UK PM

LONDON

Somalia should be enjoying an Arab Spring of its own but its al-Shabaab insurgents are fomenting jihad both at home and abroad, British Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday.

Speaking on the eve of an international conference on Somalia being held in London, Cameron said the terror threat emanating from the Horn of Africa country “could get worse” if people were “not careful.”
“Al-Shabaab has just taken the step of linking itself specifically with al-Qaeda: that is a desperately backward step,” Cameron told the BBC’s Somali service, Agence France-Presse reported.

“Clearly there are young people who take up arms in Somalia. We need to say to those people, ‘don’t do that, give up that path.’ You are joining an organization that is now an international terrorist organization. “Instead, let us give this country and its young people the hope of a job and a voice,” he said.

Turkey’s aid reaches $640 mln

“We could see it all across North Africa, the prospects of an Arab Spring, where people actually start to have more of a say in their country and how it’s run, and that should be the case in Somalia as well as in the Arab world,” Cameron said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu will represent Turkey at the conference, which begins today. The gathering, which will bring together representatives of 40 countries and various international organizations, aims to boost international efforts to aid and support Somalia.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s Public Diplomacy Coordinator’s Office has said the total aid sent from Turkey to Somalia had reached $640 million.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ recently said Turkey was extending help and assistance to Somalia without any political interests or agenda.