COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - 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.Ahmed plans the tour after attending the United Nations General Assembly at the end of September, Duale said. He had no details on dates.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.
At least three have died, including one who authorities believe is the first American suicide bomber. Three others have pleaded guilty in the U.S. to terrorism-related charges.
Ahmed, a moderate Islamist, was elected president in January and hopes to unite the country's feuding factions, but violence has continued.
The U.N. said last month that Somalia is facing its worst humanitarian crisis in 18 years, with more than half the population needing humanitarian aid amid an escalating crisis.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with Ahmed in early August at the U.S. embassy in Kenya during a seven-nation African tour. After the meeting, she pledged to expand American support for Somalia's weak interim government and threatened sanctions against neighboring Eritrea for aiding an extremist group she said was trying to launch worldwide terrorist attacks from Somalia.Duale said he couldn't say what Ahmed might talk about, but said anyone is free to ask the president questions."If they ask him, he will answer," Duale said.
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On the Net:
Somalia UN mission: http://www2.un.int/public/Somalia/
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