MOGADISHU (Halbeeg)- A career diplomat with extensive experience in the Horn has been appointed to be new U.S. ambassador to Somalia.
News website, thehill.com reported Wednesday that Donald Yamamoto, a former US ambassador to Ethiopia and Djibouti was nominated to take the office.
He will replace Mr. Stephen Michael Schwartz who has been serving the office since July 2016.
The United States maintains a non-resident diplomatic mission in Nairobi for Somalia.
Mr Yamamoto, 64, previously served as the senior US diplomat for Somalia and Eritrea.
He also worked in an acting capacity as head of the State Department’s Africa bureau during the first Obama administration.
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.
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