Ambassador Omar Abdirashid A. Sharmarke, new Somali Ambassador to the United States
Hiiraan Online
Friday, July 11, 2014
Mogadishu (HOL) - The Federal Government of Somalia has named former Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmake as the new Somali Ambassador to the United States of America. The U.S government welcomed his appointment.
The newly appointed Ambassador met with the State Department officials today in Washington and is scheduled to meet with the President Barack Obama at the White House on Monday. The Ambassador will be accompanied to the credentialing ceremony by his wife and children.
This is the first time in 25 years that the Somali government has officially named an Ambassador to America and this coincides with the recent American government announcement that they will also appoint an Ambassador to Somalia soon.
The future American ambassador to Somalia will be based in the capital Mogadishu, and the appointment of both ambassadors is a symbolic of the growing and strengthening ties between the two nations. It must be highlighted that the United States was the first western government to fully recognize the legitimacy of the current federal government of Somalia.
Although the Somali government has not officially and publicly issued an official statement about the appointment, HOL was the first news organization to be notified by a condifidential source.
The appointment of the first officially recognized Somali ambassador to the US comes a month before the President’s official visit to Washington to participate in the US-Africa Leaders Summit in August.
Ambassador Sharmake is the son of Somalia's second president and first prime minister of the Somali Republic.
The new Ambassador served as Prime Minister of Somalia in the last transitional federal government and stepped down that time amid conflict between him and the then President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.
HOL English News Desk