Top regional U.S. envoy visits Somalia

The top U.S. diplomat for Africa urged Somalis on Saturday to leave behind 16 years of bloody conflict and focus on national reconciliation, warning that the country had turned into a refuge for terrorists.

Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi E. Frazer made a surprise visit to the Horn of Africa country on the sixth day of a fragile cease-fire between the government and Islamic insurgents. The truce ended a surge in fighting that left hundreds dead and forced thousands of residents to flee Mogadishu, the capital.

“Somalia, unfortunately, has become a haven for terrorists, and that continues to be a prime concern of the United States of America,” Frazer said at a news conference after meeting with President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi.

Speaking later in neighboring Kenya, Frazer said her talks with Somalian leaders focused on the need to “build support and legitimacy for the transitional federal government and to isolate the extremists.”

Frazer is the highest-ranking American envoy to visit Somalia since 1993, when rebels brought down two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters in Mogadishu, and then engaged U.S. troops in a 12-hour battle that left 18 Americans and hundreds of Somalis dead. The U.S. withdrew a year later.

Frazer had been scheduled to come to Somalia in January, but the trip was called off because of security concerns.

Late last year, U.S. Special Forces helped Somalian troops and their Ethiopian backers push out the Islamist fighters, who had taken over the capital and surrounding region. The U.S. says the Islamists included Al Qaeda members.

Frazer said the insurgents were not interested in talking with the government and were receiving support from neighboring Eritrea and the “global jihadist network.”

“Eritrea is the country of most concern, but it is not the only country,” she said.

Frazer said Washington believed that Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, the leader of the routed Islamic movement, and Hassan Turki, another top member, were still in Somalia, along with Aden Hashi Ayro, the newly chosen head of Somalia’s Al Qaeda cell. Ayro was one of the targets of a U.S. airstrike in January in Somalia.

Frazer flew Saturday to the government stronghold of Baidoa, a town about 140 miles northwest of Mogadishu, amid extremely tight security.

She did not travel to Mogadishu, and left later in the day for Nairobi, Kenya.