After Somalia's president underlined the challenges facing the war-torn nation, organisers said 213 million dollars (165 million euros) had been raised to support security institutions and a struggling African peacekeeping mission.
"We plan to do all we can to restore peace in Somalia and end the crisis we have lived through, so that Somalia can become a place of peace," president Sharif Sheikh Ahmed told reporters after making a personal appeal for funds. "I would like to thank the international community for its generosity," said Sharif who is striving to assert his authority after taking office in January.
EU humanitarian aid commissioner Louis Michel described the four-hour conference in Brussels as "a full success", and said the EU's executive body would donate 72 million euros, around a third of the total.
Somalia has had no effective central authority since former president Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991, setting off a bloody cycle of clashes between rival factions. While the conference was not focused on piracy, the high media profile of the growing number of cases of daring raids on freighters on the seas of the Gulf of Aden has become synonymous with Somalia's woes.
"Piracy is not a water-borne disease. It is a symptom of anarchy and insecurity on the ground," said UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, also taking part with representatives from some 30 nations. "Dealing with it requires an integrated strategy that addresses the fundamental issue of lawlessness in Somalia."
