I can’t see what this will accomplish except maybe bring in some bucks for the beleaguered Islamic government in Somalia, or maybe he is hoping to persuade former refugees to not join up with the Al Shabaab jihadists trying to kill him and take over the country. But, I did have a little laugh thinking that, well, if it looked like his government might fall he could always just stay on here and ask for asylum. From AP:
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The newly elected president of Somalia plans a tour of U.S. communities with large Somali populations this fall in hopes of spreading the word about his country’s problems and getting advice for solving some of them.
Elmi Duale, Somalia’s United Nations ambassador and permanent representative, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed wants to visit communities in Minneapolis, Columbus and suburban Washington, D.C.
The visit will occur sometime at the end of this month.
Thousands of Somalis have come to the United States in the two decades since civil war began tearing their country apart in the early 1990s. The country has not had a functioning central government since about 1991.
Ahmed sees the visit as a “two-way channel,” Duale said, a chance to tell Somalis in the United States about the situation at home and a way of reminding them they can help.
“It’s a way of showing the Somalis in diaspora the homeland considers them still part and parcel of the community, and they have responsibilities to help and assist,” he said.
Ahmed’s visit also comes as a federal investigation continues into the return to Somalia of several young Somalis from the Minneapolis area, apparently to join a terrorist jihad back home.
I wonder who pays for his security while in the US. Afterall there could still be some of the recruited Al Shabaab “youths” who hadn’t left the country yet. Are local police departments responsible? Does anyone know?