Worldwide

Somalia gets British Ambassador

Britain appointed its first ambassador to Somalia for 21 years on Thursday during a visit to the capital of the Horn of Africa nation by Foreign Secretary William Hague.

It was the first visit to Mogadishu by a British foreign minister since 1992 and comes ahead of a conference in London this month to discuss measures to tackle instability in Somalia and piracy off its shores.

Britain's new envoy to Somalia, Matt Baugh, will remain based in Kenya's capital Nairobi until security conditions permit the opening of an embassy in Mogadishu.

Somalia descended into chaos after dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991 and a Western-backed transition government has been battling local al Qaeda-linked insurgents al Shabaab for the past five years.

At the moment, there are six diplomatic missions in Mogadishu, representing Djibouti, Ethiopia, Libya, Sudan, Turkey and Yemen. The U.N.'s special envoy to Somalia also moved to Mogadishu last month.

An African Union force (AMISOM) in Mogadishu has helped drive al Shabaab out of the capital, but much of the south remains in the hands of the rebels. Kenya and Ethiopia have both sent forces into Somalia to battle al Shabaab.

Analysts say the departure of al Shabaab from the capital, combined with the offensives by neighbouring states, has opened a window of opportunity to defeat the hardline militants, although Mogadishu remains prone to almost daily bomb attacks.

"We need to step this up. We are not complacent about it," William Hague said, describing Somalia as "the world's most failed state".

"For the security of the UK, it matters a lot for Somalia to become a more stable place," he said. "Some progress has been made on this, partly because of the progress of the AMISOM force."