John Kerry Makes Unannounced Visit to Somalia

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/06/world/africa/john-kerry-makes-unannounced-visit-to-somalia.html

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Secretary of State John Kerry made a brief but symbolically significant stopover in Somalia on Tuesday, becoming the highest-ranking American official to visit the war-ravaged country since a disastrous foray by American forces more than 20 years ago.

Mr. Kerry did not leave the heavily defended airport in Mogadishu, the capital, which has been chronically hit by bombings and other guerrilla attacks by the Shabab, the militant extremist group that once ruled large parts of Somalia and now has a resilient, albeit smaller, presence in the country.

He conferred with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke at the airport, according to reporters traveling with Mr. Kerry. He said that Somalia has been moving beyond the mayhem, despair and warlordism that once made it one of Africa’s most dysfunctional countries.

“I visited Somalia today because your country is turning around,” Mr. Kerry told his hosts.

In a video message to the Somali population, Mr. Kerry said: “We all have a stake in your success. The world cannot afford to have places on the map that are essentially ungoverned.”

Mr. Kerry was the first American secretary of state ever to visit Somalia, according to his spokeswoman, Marie Harf. He also was the highest-ranking figure from Washington to visit since the country first descended into anarchy in the early 1990s.

The Somalia crisis led to a calamitous intervention by American soldiers in what is widely remembered as the “Black Hawk Down” Mogadishu battle in 1993.

The United States has remained heavily involved in Somalia despite the absence of an embassy. It is an important financial contributor to the African Union Mission in Somalia, a force that helps fight the Shabab.

American forces also have in recent years conducted a number of drone strikes and aerial assaults targeting Shabab leaders. Last year, the Pentagon announced that American airstrikes against the Shabab had killed the group’s leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane, one of the most wanted men in Africa.

On Feb. 24, the Obama administration chose Katherine Simonds Dhanani, a career Foreign Service diplomat, to be the first American ambassador to Somalia since the embassy was closed in 1991.

But Mr. Kerry said Tuesday that there was “no fixed timeline for reopening the embassy,” according to Agence France-Presse.