Hacked arms and legs display the despair of Somalia

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As world leaders meet to discuss Somalia, there is evidence of a growing threat to the U.K. from the war torn country's militant group al-Shabab. NBC's  Rohit Kachroo reports. 

By Rohit Kachroo , NBC News correspondent

NAIROBI, Kenya – Staring directly at me with glazed eyes were two young men whose anguish says so much about the pure evil of al-Shabab, the Somali Islamic militant group.
The pair had escaped from Mogadishu, the Somali capital. One of them was a 19-year-old who, as a boy, was accused of stealing a piece of bread. He lifted the dangling sleeve of his shirt to reveal the punishment dealt out by his accusers, a group of al-Shabab fighters: His hand had been cut off. Not only that, but one foot had been cut away, too.
Sitting next to him was a baby-faced 21-year-old. He was a lowly laborer who was accused of being a senior government spy. He was told that he had “spoken too much,” so a militant henchman sliced away part of his tongue. Today he struggles to speak. To shield another wound, on his neck, he wears a dirty bandage which hasn’t been changed for the past week because his family cannot afford medical treatment. Without such help, his father told me, he is unlikely to live for more than two months. (The names of the two men are being withheld to prevent reprisals against them.)

Sadly, these types of atrocities are typical of al-Shabab. It is the reality faced by those unlucky enough to live in the lawless areas of
Somalia that they control. Somalia has been without a functioning central government since 1991.
Worryingly, the Somali insurgents formally merged with al-Qaida this month.
World leaders pledge help
On Thursday, international leaders, including the U.K.’s Prime Minister David Cameron, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, met in London to try to address the multiple problems faced by Somalia, arguably the planet’s most anarchic state.

A local attempt at a reproduction of the British flag is pictured flying in the southern area of Mogadishu on Thursday. Hundreds of police and security personnel were deployed in Mogadishu's streets ahead of a high level London conference on Somalia's security situation.

"For two decades Somalia has been torn apart by famine, bloodshed and some of the worst poverty on earth," Cameron said at the conference. "If the rest of us just sit back and look on, we will pay a price for doing so," he added.
Cameron warned that Somalia's al-Qaida linked militant group al-Shabab could export terrorism to Europe and the United States, with dozens of British and American citizens traveling to Somalia to train and fight with the Islamists.
Piracy, kidnappings, extremism, foreign infiltration and hunger. It is difficult to know where to start. Which of these many problems should take priority?
Biggest threat? Foreign fighters
I asked the Mayor of Mogadishu, Mohamed Ahmed Noor, a popular and optimistic man who returned to his native land after spending many years running an internet café in north London.
“It’s the foreign fighters” he said.
According to estimates, there are as many as 200 foreign nationals fighting with al-Shabab in Somalia. One former insurgent, currently in hiding, recently told me that he was certain that Americans had traveled to Somalia to fight with the militants, and that he personally knew of “six or seven” British fighters in the Mogadishu area who specialize in high explosives.

Matt Dunham / AP

British Prime Minister David Cameron, fifth left, leads the Somalia Conference at Lancaster House in London on Thursday.

Not only do these fighters threaten Somalia. The mayor pointed out the danger of those militants returning to their own countries with terrorist techniques learned in Somalia. He believes that the Western powers need to fix this failed state or risk attacks in their own territories. “It’s a training field here so they may train here and go back…we are in the same boat,” he said.
At the London conference, the leaders praised some signs of progress – pirate attacks are down and al-Shabab has been mostly driven out to Mogadishu by the African Union peacekeeping mission. The leaders pledged new funding to support political and military measures to fight al-Shabab militants. They agreed to a seven-point plan vowing more aid, and help fighting terrorism and piracy.
The people of Somalia, such as the two men I met in Kenya, are hopeful that the plan brings success and peace.