Nations pledge $306M to boost security in Somalia

International donors have pledged more than $306 million Cdn to increase the number of peacekeepers and security forces in Somalia needed to curb the rising number of pirate attacks off its coast, the head of the UN said Thursday.

The sum exceeded the $194-million request put forward by the United Nations and the European Union Development Commission ahead of the special donors meeting being held in Brussels.

The financial aid will help control the unstable situation in the African nation and rampant pirate attacks in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said.

"The situation continues to be very difficult, but with this financial help … I sincerely hope we will be able to control the situation there," Ban said Thursday at a joint news conference with the European Commission's president, Jose Manuel Barroso.

The African Union currently has about 4,350 troops in the country, and has expressed the need for more armoured personnel carriers and equipment. The money will help reach the goal of having at least 8,000 troops on the ground.

Funding will also be earmarked for the administration of Somalia's new president, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, which wants to build up a police force of 10,000 along with a separate security force of 6,000 members.

At the meeting Ahmed also called on the international community to help his government set up a new coast guard to address the problem of piracy.

"It is our duty to pursue these criminals not only on the high seas but also on terra firma," Ahmed said.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since warlords overthrew a dictator in 1991. The coup sparked a number of faction-based clashes and the country has been driven between competing militias ever since.

Ban said there are currently no plans to send a UN peacekeeping force into the country.

Problems on land fuel piracy at sea

A future donors conference is planned to raise funding for continued humanitarian assistance to Somalia and for the reconstruction of the impoverished country.

Analysts blame Somalia's nearly 20 years of lawlessness for fuelling piracy's rise off its coast.

"Piracy is a symptom of anarchy and insecurity on the ground," Ban told delegates. "More security on the ground will make less piracy on the seas."

Somalian government officials say mass poverty and unemployment resulting from years of chaos helped spawn the piracy endangering traffic in the waters off the Horn of Africa.

"We will be able to tackle ... the problems on land which is where the problems of piracy originate," said Somalian Foreign Minister Mohamed Omaar on Thursday. "Without addressing the issue on land, there is no long-term solution."

There were 115 reported pirate attacks last year, each demanding an average ransom of $1.5 million, according to the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute.

In the past year, pirates have hijacked and attacked dozens of ships in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, a key shipping lane linking Asia via the Suez Canal to Europe. Piracy experts estimate that the seafaring gangs took in about $80 million in ransom payments in 2008.

NATO forces have helped fend off several attacks in recent weeks. But the problem has become so acute that on Wednesday, NATO said it was reconsidering whether to go ahead with plans to send its four warships for scheduled port calls in Pakistan, Singapore and Australia, rather than keeping them on anti-piracy patrol off Somalia.

The U.S. navy, the European Union and NATO, as well as a number of nations including Russia, China, Japan and South Korea, have deployed warships to the region.

Although the international fleet has 15 to 20 vessels, it has been unable to root out hijackings along Somalia's 3,100-kilometre coastline.