Nations must help Somalia’s fragile leadership tackle terrorism, piracy and hunger or be prepared to pay the price, British Prime Minister David Cameron has warned at an international conference on the troubled east African nation’s future.

Somalia’s government is holding up vital aid to tens of thousands of people as car bombs and street fighting brought the death toll to nearly 1,500 in less than a month, sending the country lurching towards catastrophe, it was warned.

The European Union yesterday committed €70m in aid to Somalia to help rebuild the drought-stricken and civil war-plagued nation.