இந்நேரம்.காம்

London - Somalia should be enjoying an Arab Spring of its own but its al-Shabaab insurgents are fomenting jihad both in and out of the country, British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday.

Speaking on the eve of an international conference on Somalia being held in London, Cameron said the terror threat emanating from the Horn of Africa country "if we are not careful, could get worse".

World powers gather in London on Thursday for the conference, with recent glimmers of hope overshadowed by a litany of woes including al-Qaeda-linked militants, piracy and famine.

"Al-Shabaab has just taken the step of linking itself specifically with al-Qaeda: that is a desperately backward step," Cameron told the BBC's Somali service.

"Clearly there are young people who take up arms in Somalia. We need to say to those people, 'don't do that, give up that path.' You are joining an organisation that is now an international terrorist organisation.

"Instead, let us give this country and its young people the hope of a job and a voice.

"We could see it all across north Africa, the prospects of an Arab Spring, where people actually start to have more of a say in their country and how it's run, and that should be the case in Somalia as well as in the Arab world."

A British fighter with Al-Shabaab was killed last month during a drone attack in the capital Mogadishu. The Royal United Services Institute think-tank estimates that around 50 Britons are among their ranks.