US to recognise Somali government
2013-01-17 11:38
Washington - The United States will on Thursday recognise
the first Somali government in two decades, heralding a significant shift in
ties since the deadly 1993 attack on US helicopters over Mogadishu.
The beginning of the new chapter will come when US Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton exchanges diplomatic notes with visiting Somali
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, a top US official said on Wednesday.
"The visit here this week of the new Somalian president
Hassan Sheikh Mohamud represents a significant change in the security and
political situation on the ground in Somalia and our relationship with that
country," Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson told journalists.
It will be Clinton's first meeting with the new Somali
leader who was only elected in September, and was relatively unknown outside
his country.
Somalia has not had an effective central government since
1991. Two years later, Americans were shocked by scenes of US soldiers being
dragged through the streets of Mogadishu after Somali militants shot down two
Black Hawk helicopters. Eighteen Americans died, and 80 were wounded.
However, a new Somali administration took office last year,
ending eight years of transitional rule by a corruption-riddled government.
And in recent months, a 17 000-strong African Union force,
fighting alongside government troops and Ethiopian soldiers, finally wrested a
string of key towns from the control of Islamist Shabaab insurgents.
Significant progress
Carson hailed recent US policies on Somalia, and praised the
work of African nations through the African Union force in Somalia Amisom,
which helped oust the militants from their last major stronghold of Kismayo in
September.
"This has been a major, major success. We are long way from
where we were on October 3 1993 when Black Hawk down occurred in
Mogadishu," Carson said.
"Significant progress has been made in stabilising the
country and in helping to break-up and defeat al-Shabaab. Much more needs to be
done but we think enormous progress has been made," he added.
Carson has repeatedly stressed that the success in Somalia
should be seen as a model for African-led peacekeeping forces in the region.
A university lecturer, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud defied
predictions and was chosen by lawmakers as Somalia's new president from among a
dozen hopefuls in September elections.
Clinton swiftly congratulated him on his win, which was
hailed by the US administration as "an important milestone" for the
country.
His party described the new president as the architect of
Somali civil society, and unlike many Somali politicians he is not part of the
diaspora.
But he inherits an ongoing war, a humanitarian crisis,
feeble institutions and deeply entrenched warlordism. Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab
rebels, who still control vast swathes of the country, dismissed his election
as illegitimate.
New international conference
The US move on Thursday will open doors to the country,
which will also be the focus of a new international conference to be hosted in
Britain in May.
"This will build on last year's successful meeting in
London to help sustain international support for the progress being made by the
Somali government," a spokesperson for the office of British Prime
Minister David Cameron said.
A US official, who asked to remain anonymous, said no
official American aid package would be unveiled at the State Department meeting
on Thursday.
However "the fact that we recognise a government there
would allow us to do things through USAID we have not been able to do
before," he said.
"The fact that we recognise them as the legitimate
government would allow the World Bank and the IMF to do things that they had
not been able to do before."
