Obama to nominate U.S. ambassador to Somalia

For the first time in more than 20 years, the United States will appoint an ambassador to Somalia in what a senior official on Tuesday described as show of faith for future stability in the war-ravaged nation.

According to the official, U.S. President Barack Obama plans to nominate the first U.S. ambassador to Somalia. However, the U.S. has no immediate plans to re-open its embassy in the Somali capital Mogadishu, which has been beset by violence and deadly bombings spurred by the militant network – the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab.

In a Tuesday speech, U.S. Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman said the decision to name an ambassador to Somalia reflects what she called a sign of the deepening relations between Washington and Mogadishu and “the faith that better times are ahead.”

More countries have began increasing ties with Mogadishu after Somali civil activist Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was elected president in September 2012.

The United States has resisted re-opening its embassy in Mogadishu, which closed in 1991, when Somalia’s government collapsed after years of civil war. American troops were sent to Mogadishu the next year to help stave off the country’s famine on a peacekeeping mission that lasted until their 1994 withdrawal – about 5 months after the humiliating “Black Hawk Down” debacle in late 1993, when Somali militiamen shot down two U.S. helicopters; 18 servicemen were killed in the crash and subsequent rescue attempt.

In recent years, U.S. diplomats who focus on Somali issues have been based in neighboring Kenya, and travel to Mogadishu periodically to meet with government officials and civil society activists.

Source: Associated Press