Hillary Clinton to meet Somali leader on Africa tour

Aug 6, 2009, 4:32 GMT

   Nairobi - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was due Thursday to meet beleaguered Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed in a show of support for a regime penned in by Islamist insurgents.

   Clinton, in the early stages of a seven-nation African tour, was expected to meet Sheikh Sharif in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, as lawless Somalia is considered far too dangerous for a visit.

   Large swathes of the Horn of Africa nation are in the hands of the insurgent group al-Shabaab, which the United States said has close links with al-Qaeda.

   An estimated 18,000 Somalis have died and a million have been displaced by the insurgency, which kicked off in early 2007 after an Ethiopian invasion.

   Sheikh Sharif, a former close ally of the insurgents, came to power this year in a United Nations-backed peace process.

   Hopes were high that he could end the fighting, but the insurgents have instead redoubled their efforts and brought chaos to the capital, Mogadishu. They oppose Sheikh Sharif, saying he is too close to the West.

   The United States recently provided military supplies to the Somali government, but Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson, who is accompanying Clinton, said no further assistance was expected to be pledged at the meeting.

   Nonetheless, Sheikh Sharif on Tuesday called the meeting a 'great opportunity' for Somalia.

   'The meeting shows ... how the international community is ready to support the government,' he told reporters in Mogadishu.

   Meeting Clinton is unlikely to further endear him to al-Shabaab, which many see as an increasing regional threat.

   Neighbouring Kenya has beefed up security along its borders and raised its security level as worries over possible terrorist attacks rise.

   According to diplomats in Nairobi, foreign fighters have been flooding into Somalia this year and suicide bombings against government forces and the African Union peacekeepers backing them have become more frequent.

   Kenya has already borne the brunt of suicide bombings organized by al-Qaeda-linked operatives. Clinton was expected to lay a wreath at the site of the 1998 US embassy bombing in downtown Nairobi.

   The secretary is on the second full day of an 11-day tour of Africa. She plans to visit South Africa, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Liberia and Cape Verde as well as Kenya.

   On Wednesday, she warned delegates at a trade conference in Nairobi that while Africa has a bright future, it was unlikely to come to pass unless governance improved dramatically.

   She also pushed Kenya to set up a local tribunal to prosecute those responsible for the violence that followed December 2007's disputed presidential election.

   Around 1,500 people died in tribal violence that many believe was orchestrated by high-ranking politicians.