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Robb

(39,665 posts)
Sun Jun 10, 2012, 05:05 PM Jun 2012

First senior U.S. official in 19 years visits Mogadishu

Source: CNN

For the first time in nearly 20 years, a senior U.S. official visited the Somali capital of Mogadishu on Sunday, a sign of improving security in a country long considered a failed state.

Johnnie Carson, assistant secretary for African affairs, met with Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, president of Somalia's transitional government, along with several high-ranking government and diplomatic officials.

"I think that we probably are in the best position that we have been in more than two decades, and my very presence in Mogadishu was an acknowledgment of the progress made," Carson told CNN Sunday in an interview in Nairobi after leaving Somalia.


A year ago, the visit would have been unthinkable. But in August, African Union troops pushed Al-Shabaab, an Islamic militant group affiliated with al Qaeda, out of central Mogadishu after years of bitter urban fighting.


Read more: http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/10/first-senior-u-s-official-in-19-years-visits-mogadishu/?hpt=hp_t2



Mog round-up:

Somali opens Mogadishu's first dry cleaners in decades

and

Al-Shabaab offers reward of chickens for whereabouts of Barack Obama
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First senior U.S. official in 19 years visits Mogadishu (Original Post) Robb Jun 2012 OP
Bet he avoids helicopters dipsydoodle Jun 2012 #1
Sounds scary. Hope Johnnie traveled with his favorite bodyguard RufusTFirefly Jun 2012 #2
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