Somalia: Simmonds and Fozia Co-chair International Community Meeting

ADDIS ABABA– Minister for Africa and Somali Foreign Minister co-chair meeting of international community on Somalia at the AU Summit in Addis Ababa.After the meeting, the Minister for Africa, Mark Simmonds, and the Somali Foreign Minister, Her Excellency Fauzia Yusuf Adam, spoke about the Somalia Conference being held in the UK on 7th May.

Mr Simmonds said:

“In today’s meeting we discussed the priorities for this spring’s Somalia conference, which is being held in the UK. As a result of the significant progress over the last year, this conference will be co-chaired by the Prime Minister, David Cameron, and the Somali President, His Excellency Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

“The Somali government have set out their priorities and this spring’s conference is part of the international community’s work to help deliver these priorities. Strong international coordination will help ensure that we can deliver, in the shortest possible time and with the maximum possible impact, security and improved government capacity for the Somali people.”

Her Excellency, Fauzia Yusuf Adam said:

“We are veryFozia and Simmonds grateful to the Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and the international community for their support of Somalia and their work to re-establish Somali security forces.

“Somalia is fighting terrorism and piracy and succeeding with that. We also have many challenges, but the support of the international community has given us a lot of progress. We are looking forward to the conference in May which we are coming to co-chair. Hopefully from there we can move forward.”

SOURCEUnited Kingdom – Ministry of Foreign Affairs