EU pledges €200 million for Somalia as part of Security Pact
The European Union announced a €200 million support fund for Somalia. The EU financing will be implemented by the European Union Trust Fund for Africa.
The European Union pledged €200 million in support of Somalia Security Pact. According to EU officials, the financing will go towards helping the country’s development, stability and security.
“Somalia’s future matters to Europe and our support matters to Somalia,” said Vice-President Federica Mogherini.”The €200 million we have announced today strengthens the EU’s leading role in supporting the country’s development, stability and security. We already play a major role for peace in the country through the three active missions in the country as well as our support to the African Union peacekeeping mission AMISOM. We believe that the people of Somalia can and should shape the future of their country. We want Somalia to rise again – and today we demonstrate it in very practical terms.”
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The funding will be channelled through the European Union Trust Fund for Africa. The financing should help address the root causes of destabilization, forced displacement and irregular migration.
“Today’s support package of €200 million is new and additional to what we already do in Somalia. It will focus on building effective and sustainable responses to security challenges, on creating economic opportunities and on building state legitimacy and democratic governance,” said Neven Mimica, Commissioner in charge of International Cooperation and Development.
The European Union hopes that the funds will help drive Somalia’s economic recovery by supporting the reforms needed to build a stable country. The EU is a long standing partner to Somalia in development aid, peacekeeping operations and humanitarian aid. For the period 2015-2020, the EU and its Member States cooperation including development, humanitarian aid and peacekeeping operations amounts to €3.4 billion.
The support announced by the European Union comes after UN Secretary General warned about the ongoing crisis in Somalia and about the prospects that 275,000 malnourished children face starvation as food insecurity threatens 6.2 million people.
The United Nations has increased its appeal for the country by $900 million to a total of $1.5 billion to allow aid agencies to cope with a severe drought that is causing a humanitarian crisis.
The severe drought that hit Somalia is just adding to the humanitarian problems that the country is facing after more than a decade of in-fighting. Somalia has seen continued violence since 1991.
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