Somalilandsun – International donors met on Monday to approve a “New Deal” for Somalia to drive its economic and political recovery after two decades of bloody civil war.
President Hassan Sheikh Mahmud faced one of “the most difficult challenges in the world”, EU foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton said as they went into the meeting.
“I hope this will be a really significant moment” for Somalia, Ashton added.
As president Mahmud told participants that he was “very grateful” for all the effort made on behalf of his country, his constituents were demonstrating outside the conference hall in opposition to the “New Deal”
Meanwhile Somalia’s al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab rebels have dismissed a key donor conference in Brussels as “Belgian waffle”.
However al-Shabab, which is fighting to oust the 57-year-old Mohamud, said in a statement on Twitter that “the billions promised will most likely be unpaid, the paltry sum given to the apostates [Somali government], will be lost in corruption”.
“It’s a bit like Belgian Waffles: sweet on the outside but really has not much substance to it. They are just hollow promises of Kufr [Arabic word for infidels]” the group said.
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