{{Signaling the latest step forward in rapidly strengthening U.S.-Somalia relations, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development spent five hours in Mogadishu on Thursday, the highest ranking U.S. administration official to visit Somalia’s capital in years.}}<\/p>\n
The U.S. is embracing the new government in Mogadishu, a formerly war-torn city that has seen about 18 months of relative peace after African Union troops ousted al-Qaida-linked militants. <\/p>\n
Last month the U.S. formally recognized Somalia’s government for the first time in two decades, during a visit to Washington by Somalia’s president.<\/p>\n
It was less than two years ago that Rajiv Shah, the administrator of USAID, visited a Kenyan refugee camp filled with more than 400,000 Somalis during the middle of a devastating famine, a tragedy the U.N.-backed Somali government was ill-equipped to handle. <\/p>\n
Shah said Thursday he still carries the vivid memory of seeing babies near death.<\/p>\n
By contrast, Shah said his visit Thursday to Mogadishu signaled the desire of the U.S. government to partner with Somalia’s new government “to create a fundamentally different and more hopeful future for the Somali people.” <\/p>\n
He said Somalia was once mired in conflict, famine and terrorism, but that its story line is now one of resilience, recovery and hope.<\/p>\n
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