CRI听力:John Kerry Makes Historic Trip to Somalia

US Secretary of State John Kerry has made an unannounced trip to Somalia, becoming the first US Secretary of State to visit Somalia.

The unannounced trip to Somalia from neighboring Kenya is being seen as a show of solidarity with the fledgling Somali national government in Mogadishu.

This government has been struggling to exert its control over the country, much of which is still administered by either tribal factions or what is now the al-Shabaab militant group in the country's south.

As part of his time in Mogadishu, John Kerry has met with Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

"The United States will begin the process of establishing the premises for a diplomatic mission in Mogadishu. And while we do not yet have a fixed timeline for reopening the embassy, we are immediately beginning the process of upgrading our diplomatic representation, and I look forward, as does the president, to the day when both the United States and Somalia have full fledged missions in each other's capital cities again."

The meeting itself has taken place under tight security conditions inside the perimeter of Mogadishu's airport.

Somalia's government only found out a day before that Kerry would be arriving.

Kerry's time there is the latest chapter in a long and often difficult history of US involvement in Somalia.

American troops were sent there in 1992 on a peacekeeping mission, but left two years later in humiliation after 18 servicemen were killed in the downing of a pair of Blackhawk helicopters and a subsequent rescue attempt.

The US withdrawal eventually led to the collapse of an international coalition which had been working in Somalia to try to restore order and end a massive famine which had been gripping the country, leading to over 2-decades of Somalia being without a central government.