Somali conf. ends with commitment to launch new political process

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

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The international community and Somalia Monday endorsed the so-called Compact, a pledge to the reconstruction and launch a new political process for the development of the conflict-stricken East African country.

The 'New Deal for Somalia' conference also committed to change the way the international community is working with Somalia and endorsed five peace and state building goals.

"We set out our ambition to make this a bit different and we set out a living document, a compact that will be changed and developed to meet the need of the Somalia people," EU High Representative Catherine Ashton told a new conference after the meeting this evening.

"And the document will be more than a commitment, a pledge of money but will be a pledge of commitment to each other for the people of Somalia," she added.

The EU announced at the Brussels conference a pledge of an additional 650 million euro to support Somalia in order to sustain the positive momentum in the country and to ensure that it stays on the path to stability and peace.

On his part, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, President of Somalia, said the priorities of all Somalis have been integrated into this one single document called the Compact.

"On behalf of the Federal government and the people of Somalia, allow me to express my votes of gratitude and appreciation to the EU for its efforts, dedication and leadership in assisting Somalia on our path towards peace and solidarity," he said.

"You have been our strong partner for many years and we are truly in debt in this regard. The same is true for the rest of our regional and international partners on similar undertakings made in the past in demonstrating sense of solidarity at this critical change of our history," he added.

About 50 countries and international organisations attended the one-day event which was joint organised by the EU and the Somali government in Brussels.

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