Somalia to world: We need weapons and cash to fight terror

A Somali soldier stands against a crumbling wall at the army's headquarters in Kismayo on Saturday.

Somalia's defense minister made an international plea to aid its struggling government, saying it cannot fight the terrorist group behind Kenya's mall massacre without more funding and weapons from the global community.

"We are not looking at jet fighters. It’s small arms," Abdulhakim Haji Faqi told NBC News. "We need the funding and resources." He warned that the attack on the Westgate mall should be a wake-up call illustrating that Somalia-based terror organization al Shabaab was now a “global problem.”

“We need to defeat them ideologically and militarily," Faqi said. "If we had more weapons, they would be less of a problem by now. ... The way to help is to fund the Somali government."

Faqi said there had been "lots of promises but no deliverance" from the West.

In March, the U.N. Security Council partially lifted an arms embargo on Somalia dating back decades so it could continue its fight against al Shabaab. And both the U.S. and the E.U. have provided billions in aid for development and security in the African nation -- the U.S. has pledged $1.5 billion since 2009, according to the Wall Street Journal, and the EU recently pledged 650 million euros (or $868 million).

Still, the Somali defense minister said his troops lacked the firepower to take on the al Qaeda-linked group and were relying on AK-47s similar to those used by the militants.

“We are underfunded. We don’t have the proper weapons to fight al Shabaab,” Faqi said. 

Faqi said the rampage targeting shoppers in Nairobi, in which at least 72 people were killed, showed why the international community needed to help his forces defeat al Shabaab.

Read more via nbcnews