Inclusion of youth in nation building key to strangling terrorism, Somali president urges

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has underscored the need for political and economic inclusion of youth to deter them from falling prey to terrorist groups.

In his address Sunday to the global security gathering in Munich Germany, President Mohamud said Somali youth, who make up 70% of the population, have grown up in the chaos of a lawless state after the collapse of the government in 1991.

Noting that these youth were ‘very very vulnerable to be recruited by the evil forces’ liked Al-Shabaab, Mohamud said there was an overarching need to prioritise the youth involvement in development and nation building to protect them from such vulnerabilities.

Sounding up beat of a rising Somalia, the president emphasised the need for local solutions to local contexts rather than importing ‘one size fits all’ prescriptions to address challenges facing each country.

Syrian question

The Munich Security Conference which brings together leaders of states, heads of governments of over 70 countries and international organisations has largely been preoccupied with the Syrian conflict with world powers such as Russia and the US clashing on approaches towards the 5 year security challenge in Syria.

Diplomats from a group of countries that have interests in Syria’s five-year civil war, including the U.S., Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran, agreed on Friday to seek a temporary “cessation of hostilities” within a week. They also agreed to “accelerate and expand” deliveries of humanitarian aid to besieged Syrian communities beginning this week.

But it remains whether the truce will hold given Russia’s sustained bombing campaign in support for the Assad forces which said this week were trying to encircle rebels in Aleppo, the country’s largest city, and cut off their supply route to Turkey.