The new chief envoy is Donald Yamamoto who was acting US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa until last July.

President Donald Trump’s ramped up military support for the Somali government the US recognized five years ago.

American warplanes and drones have struck more than two dozen times against Al Shabaab militants.

Washington’s been wary of involvement in Somalia since the notorious Black Hawk Down incident in 1993 when 18 US special forces were killed in the downing of an attack helicopter by rebels.

The US State Department says the return to Somalia indicates the progress made by the government in Mogadishu and will advance stability, democracy and economic development in that Horn of Africa country. 

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The United States is being increasingly drawn into a clandestine war in Somalia.

It is a battle that will embroil the next occupant of the Whitehouse -whomever he or she might be.

The US was at pains to stay out of Somalia following the 1993 setback known as Black Hawk Down when 18 American troops died fighting warlord Mohammed Aidid.

US troops, to use an old cowboy cliche, got outta there. They avoided Somalia like the plague for some years.

However they remained concerned about the incubation of terrorists in the virtually ungoverned Somalia and secretly supported the  2006 Ethiopian intervention to drive Islamists out of Mogadishu.

In the event, that give  rise to  the terrorist movement Al Shabaab – which means the youth in Arabic – and forced the Obama administration to think again.

The decider was Al Shabaab’s attack on the Westgate mall in Nairobi that left at least 67 people dead.

Obama  felt obliged to drop his reluctance to put boots on the ground.

The battle against Al Shabaab special forces,  air and drone strikes, private contractors and African allies.

US attacks have increased exponentially on the movement that has been driven out of Somalia cities but manages to make indiscriminate attacks on urban targets from its rural bases.

The terrorists have struck Somalia police and army installations, popular restaurants and hotels and African Union bases.

The US had considerable success against Al Shabaab which was growing bolder and more daring its attacks.

Inevitably, though, there has been collateral damage with US forces inadvertently killing Somali government fighters.

They have been forced to mount more and more so-called self-defense attacks on Al Shabaab forcing, analysts says,  to an inevitable escalation in US military involvement in Somalia.

Michael Stock, director of the Washington-based Bancroft Global Development says they are in the business of nurturing a kernel of Somali fighters, trained by marines, around which a competent, sustainable defence force can be built.

They’re determined not to repeat the costly mistakes of Afghanistan and Iraq where large armies are formed that could not get the job done.

The elite Somali troops are also getting training at the US military task force in Djibouti, the self-governing enclave in the Horn  where Washington has its only permanent base on the African continent.

Independent analysts fear that the poor training, lack of  funds and equipment and poor motivation of the Somali forces will draw the US project out for many years.

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As the first US Secretary of State to visit Somalia , John Kerry’s showing Washington

support for the tenuous government in Mogadishu.

It’s been a plain-speaking safari for the US foreign affairs chief who’s turned the critical spotlight on Burundi and South Sudan.

ends intro

John Kerry arrived in Mogadishu unannounced.

He’s seeing President Hassan Sheikh Mohammed and other Somali leaders.

The US has effectively shied away from Somalia since the Black Hawk down episode 22 years ago when two American helicopters were downed over the capital and 18 of their occupants were killed.

It led to the swift withdrawal of US peacekeeping troops.

A more interventionist approach by Washington might be looming with Kerry warning Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza that seeking a third term is both unconstitutional and illegal.

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