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Obama nominates 1st US ambassador to Somalia since 1991
February 25, 2015 01:13 GMT
(Eds: Fixes typo in V2067-NewsNow which moved at 19:26 EST)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama has nominated a career diplomat to be the first U.S. ambassador to Somalia in more than two decades, filling a post that has been vacant since war forced the closure of the American embassy there.
Obama on Tuesday tapped Katherine Simonds Dhanani for the post, which will be based in neighboring Kenya until security conditions permit the embassy in the Somali capital of Mogadishu to reopen, the State Department said. Somalia has been ravaged by conflict since 1991 despite the formation of a new government that continues to struggle against the al-Qaida affiliated al-Shabab militant group, which has staged attacks around east Africa and this week threatened Western shopping malls.
The State Department said the nomination is a sign of the U.S. commitment to Somalia.
