Terrorism warning from Hague as he visits ‘world’s most failed state’

William Hague warned last night that more action was needed to tackle the terrorist threat from Somalia, as he became the first British Foreign Secretary to visit the strife-torn African state for 20 years.

His arrival in the capital, Mogadishu, marked the start of a major diplomatic push by Britain to help stabilise a country he described as “the world’s most failed state”.

The government is hosting an international conference on Somalia in London this month, and Mr Hague said counterterrorism co-operation would be high on the agenda. “We need to step this up. We are not complacent about it,” he said.

Security in Mogadishu has improved since an offensive last year by the country’s 10,000-strong African Union force (Amisom) drove the jihadists of al-Shabaab out of the city.

But suicide bombings, improvised explosive devices and grenade attacks remain regular occurrences, and al-Shabaab, which has links with al-Qaeda, still controls much of southern Somalia.

At the same time, pirates continue to prey on international shipping in Somali waters, while the region has more than a million refugees forced to flee their homes by famine.

The dangers were underlined by the tight security surrounding Mr Hague’s ten-minute trip from Amison’s base at the airport to the residence of the president, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. The Foreign Secretary and his entourage were required to don body armour and helmets, and travelled in a small convoy of armoured vehicles.

With MI5’s director general Jonathan Evans having warned in 2010 of the threat posed to the UK by terrorists trained in al-Shabaab’s camps, Mr Hague said there must be no let up now in the pressure.

“For the security of the UK, it matters a lot for Somalia to become a more stable place,” he said. “Some progress has been made on this, partly because of the progress of the Amisom force.”

His warning of the dangers to the UK were echoed by Mogadishu mayor Mohamoud Ahmed Nur, who said that, with 350,000 Somalis living in the UK, the government could not afford to ignore the problem. He said disaffected young British Somalis were already travelling to Somalia to seek terrorist training before returning to Britain with “revenge in their hearts”.

“There are Somali British fighting alongside al-Qaeda and al-Shabaab,” he said. “They may go and they may come back. Those who leave school with no qualifications, those who go to prison, they say ‘Why should I stay in Britain’, so they go and fight. They have revenge in their hearts.”

After his meeting with the president, Mr Hague announced the appointment of Matt Baugh as first British ambassador to Somalia since 1991, when the country collapsed into civil war, and plans for a new British embassy once security conditions allow.