U.S. congressman Donald Payne flew into Mogadishu on Monday flanked by six bodyguards on what is believed to be the first visit to the Somali capital by a senior American politician for years, witnesses said.
Somali officials, who met him as he arrived on a small jet with the Somali foreign minister, said Payne would discuss ways the international community could help the government, and the issue of piracy, during a visit due to last just a few hours.
"He will meet the prime minister and the president, then give a news conference," one official told a Reuters reporter who watched Payne disembark in Mogadishu.
African Union (AU) soldiers, who are in Somalia on a peacekeeping mission, also provided security for Payne on his visit to one of the world's most dangerous cities.
Payne, 74, a New Jersey Democrat, is in his 10th term in the U.S. House of Representatives and was first elected in 1988. He is chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus and is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee's subcommittee on Africa and global health.
The then top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, became the first high-ranking U.S. official to visit Somalia in more than a decade when she landed in Baidoa in April, 2007.
She avoided Mogadishu due to insecurity, preferring to meet officials in the provincial town of Baidoa that was then the seat of the Somali parliament.
Source: Reuters
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