Barack Obama is to appoint the United States' first ambassador to Somalia since the "Black Hawk Down" incident more than 20 years ago in a show of faith that "better times are ahead" for the Horn of Africa nation.

A senior US official also said military strikes may continue against al-Qaida targets in Somalia but did not specify whether they would involve drones.

At the time, the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu was the deadliest firefight involving US forces since Vietnam. Somali militiamen shot down two US helicopters, killed 18 Americans and injured 73. The 15-hour battle ultimately led to a withdrawal of US troops from the country, which descended into two decades of anarchy and extremism.

On Tuesday, Wendy Sherman, the American under secretary of state for political affairs, said Somalia had become "a synonym for chaos" but there were now hopeful signs of improvement in security and the economy.

"As a reflection both of our deepening relationship with the country and of our faith that better times are ahead, the president will propose the first US ambassador to Somalia in more than two decades," she told the US Institute of Peace thinktank in Washington.

Last year Britain became the first EU state to reopen its embassy in Somalia, with the ambassador and other staff living in 8-metre by 2-metre reinforced containers inside Mogadishu's fortified airport compound, but the US has no immediate plans to follow suit. Mogadishu has been beset by violence and deadly bombings by the Islamist group al-Shabaab, a self-declared affiliate of al-Qaida. Two weeks ago a car bomb outside the national parliament building killed at least seven people, and a senior al-Shabaab fighter threatened Americans in a radio broadcast.

At present an American diplomat based in Nairobi, the capital of neighbouring Kenya, flies sporadically to Mogadishu. Sherman estimated that about a dozen US diplomats are currently in Nairobi working on Somalia.

Western governments began strengthening ties with Somalia after civil society activist Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was elected president in September 2012. The US has carried out air strikes against suspected members of al-Shabaab and provided training and equipment to the African Union peacekeeping mission, Amisom.

Sherman said: "A small contingent of US military personnel, including some special operations forces, have been present in parts of Somalia for several years."

She noted that there have been a number of direct American military strikes on targets but did not provide details on whether, as has been widely assumed and reported, they were carried out by drones.

"From time-to-time the US military has conducted such action in Somalia against a limited number of targets who … have been determined to be part of al-Qaida," she said. These may continue in the future if it was established that there was a "continuing imminent threat to US persons".

Last year, following the al-Shabaab attack on the Westgate shopping mall, US navy seals launched a night-time raid on the town of Barawe in a bid to capture Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulkadir, who is linked to a number of terrorist plots, but were forced to retreat an hour later empty handed.

Sherman acknowledged there was a hard struggle ahead and challenged Somalis to discard age old clan rivalries and focus on building a united national government. "None of us can make that choice for Somalis. But Somalis should know, if they choose to continue to come together, they will have enthusiastic and substantial international support."

Now is the best chance in a quarter of a century to start realising the post-independence hopes for peace and prosperity in Somalia, she said, cautioning: "The path ahead remains rocky and uphill."

Sherman did not say who would be nominated as the ambassador to Somalia, adding only that it would happen soon.





Source Guardian