USAID Boss Visits Somalia, Says US is Committed

{{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.}}

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.

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.

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.

Shah said Thursday he still carries the vivid memory of seeing babies near death.

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.”

He said Somalia was once mired in conflict, famine and terrorism, but that its story line is now one of resilience, recovery and hope.

{wirestory}