County News
Trump appoints Yamamoto as new US Ambassador to Somalia
Yamamoto in a past event, (Courtesy)
MOGADISHU—President Donald Trump has nominated Donald Yamamoto to be the new US ambassador to Somalia as the American leader aims to reduce the number of vacant ambassador positions.
He will replace Mr. Stephen Michael Schwartz who has been serving the office since July 2016.
The administration of President Donald Trump this year stepped up ongoing American military intervention in Somalia.
The move follows violent clashes between the Somali government and Al Shabaab.
The United States restored its diplomatic mission in Somalia in 2014 for the first time since the “Black Hawk Down” incident 25 years ago.
He previously served as the senior Vice president at the National Defense University from 2016-2017; senior advisor to the director general of the Foreign Service on personnel reform from 2015-2016; as charge d’Affaires at the US mission Somalia office in Mogadishu in 2016; and in senior positions in Kabul, Mazar e-Sharif, and Bagram, Afghanistan from 2014-2015.
In September last year, the US ambassador to Somalia Stephen Schwartz resigned, citing personal reasons.
The US mission to Somalia is located in the American embassy in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
After years of chaos – starting with the fall of the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and the ensuing conflict between powerful warlords – Somalia has started to make some progress: elections were held in 2016 and political institutions are slowly being rebuilt. The government last month unveiled its first national development plan in three decade.
For now, the government depends on the African Union (AU) peacekeeping force, Amisom, which has been deployed here since 2007.
