Mr
Cameron said progress had been "remarkable" since the last meeting,
with the al-Qaeda-linked insurgents, al-Shabaab, pushed to the brink of
defeat across the country. "Al-Shabaab has been driven out of town after
town, piracy is down 80 per cent and there is a new federal government
in place."
The challenge for Somalia's supporters is to create
a situation in which youths were not falling for the "poison" of
Islamic fundamentalism for the price of a mobile.
"This is not
just vital for Somalia, this is vital for Britain, for our national
security," he said. "If we ignore it we will be making the same mistakes
in Somalia that we made in Afghanistan in the 1990s. I'm not prepared
to let that happen."
Among the plans, British funding will
immediately support is a project to rebuild the central prison of
Mogahdishu a building that has not been renovated since it was
constructed in 1832.