By Edmund Sanders
Nairoli, Kenya - Bolstered by a meeting Thursday (click here) between Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Somalia’s transitional president, the Obama administration is embarking on the most direct engagement in the Horn of Africa nation since 18 U.S. peacekeepers were killed there in 1993, diplomats of both countries say.
Wrapping up her first stop of a seven-nation Africa tour, Clinton met Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed at the U.S. Embassy in Kenya to discuss ways Washington can provide additional financial and military support to help the fragile government defeat an insurgency by Islamic extremists.
Clinton is the highest-ranking U.S. official to hold a one-on-one meeting with the head of Somalia’s 5-year-old transitional government. The meeting was part of a new approach by the Obama administration to restore formal diplomatic ties with Somalia and take a more active role in assisting the U.N.-recognized government....
