For the first time in 20 years Britain has appointed an ambassador to Somalia.
The new Ambassador to Somalia, Matt Baugh, will be based in the Kenyan capital Nairobi for the time being until security conditions permit the opening of a UK Embassy in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
On Thursday, William Hague arrived in Mogadishu, to mark the start of a major diplomatic push by Britain to help stabilise a country he described as “the world’s most failed state”. The Government is hosting an international conference in London on Somalia later this month and Mr Hague said counter-terrorism cooperation would be high on the agenda.
Some will view Britain’s new diplomatic interest with suspicion as Hague’s visit to Somalia coincides with the drilling for oil by Canadian oil and gas exploration company Africa Oil Corp. The company began drilling an exploratory well in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region on Tuesday, the first to be sunk in the country since civil war erupted two decades ago.
While there has been speculation about finding oil in the anarchic Horn of Africa country for decades, it has no proven hydrocarbon reserves. The prospect of oil beneath Dharoor’s sandy, arid plains has excited officials of the impoverished region.
“Soon Puntland will be out of hunger and shall stop asking assistance from the international community. We shall never beg, we shall be begged if the fuel comes out,” Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamud Farole said at the spudding ceremony.
“This fuel well is not only for Puntland. It will benefit all Somalis if Somalia becomes one with a common constitution,” Farole said while laying a foundation stone.
Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991 when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Strategically located in the Horn of Africa, Somalia is one of the countries generating the highest number of refugees and internally displaced people in the world.
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