US opens its Mogadishu embassy

The US has reopened its embassy in Mogadishu, nearly three decades after it was shut as the Horn of Africa nation plunged into civil war. Al Jazeera reports that Washington closed its embassy during the 1991 overthrow of then President Siad Barre's military regime which ushered in decades of chaos, however, diplomatic relations have strengthened in recent years. Donald Yamamoto, US ambassador to Somalia, said ‘it is a significant and historic day that reflects Somalia's progress in recent years, and another step forward in regularising US diplomatic engagement in Mogadishu’. A permanent diplomatic presence was established in Mogadishu in December 2018, but was operated out of Nairobi in neighbouring Kenya.