“Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson was speaking after making the first visit by a top US official in two decades.

He said his trip to Mogadishu was to acknowledge “significant progress” made against al-Shabab militants.

…the US envoy was in and out of the Somali capital in a matter of hours on Sunday, but during his key visit met the Somali president, prime minister and other members of the Transitional Federal Government.

Mr Carson said the US would impose sanctions on anyone standing in the way of the political process now under way.”

“The EU recently agreed to expand Operation Atalanta to allow forces to attack land targets as well as those at sea, and this is the first time its forces have used the new rules to attack a base on the mainland.”

“The visit to war-torn Mogadishu is the first by a leader from outside Africa in almost 20 years.

The Turkish foreign minister, part of a delegation accompanying Mr Erdogan, told the BBC they wanted to break the idea that the city was a no-go area.”

“The UN has officially declared two parts of Somalia to be in famine amid the worst drought in east Africa for 60 years.

‘Current humanitarian response is inadequate to meet emergency needs,’ [a UN report] said. ‘Assuming current levels of response, evidence suggests that famine across all regions of the south will occur in the coming one to two months. A massive multisectoral response is critical to prevent additional deaths and total livelihood/social collapse and, most immediately, interventions to improve food access and to address health/nutrition issues are needed.’”

“The trial marks the first attempt by South Korea - a major seafaring nation - to punish foreign pirates.”

“The Istanbul Conference on Somalia, under the theme ‘Preparing Somalia’s Future: Goals for 2015,’ opens today with the participation of heads of state and representatives from more than 50 countries, and international organizations in cooperation with the United Nations. The conference will end on June 1.

The Istanbul conference is organized on the eve of rising opportunities of ending political, security, humanitarian instabilities and disputes that have continued for 21 years in Somalia.” 

“The EU Naval Force has conducted the first operation to destroy pirate equipment on the Somali coastline. The attack was conducted in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolution 1851. It was also supported by Somalia’s transitional federal government. There were no apparent casualties after the precise attack air strike against pirate supplies on the shoreline. The Council of the European Union on March 23 allowed the EU Naval Force to take disruption actions against known pirate supplies on the shore.”

“Some analysts have suggested the Islamist insurgents withdrew because funding from the Arab world had dwindled and they had become militarily weaker.”

“The United Nations has delivered food and medicine to displaced and malnourished Somalis for the first time in territory held by the Islamist movement al-Shabab.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) airlifted emergency nutrition supplies and water equipment to the town of Baidoa, in south-central Somalia, after the movement, which controls most of the country, lifted its ban on foreign aid organisations.

The delivery included five tonnes of food and medicine to treat severely malnourished children as well as equipment to supply clean water for a camp near Baidoa that houses refugees.

UNICEF says about 11 million people need humanitarian assistance in the Horn of Africa.

The organisation estimates that about 500,000 Somali children face life-threatening conditions that could have long-lasting consequences for their physical and mental development.”

“The order came from the prime minister of Somalia’s UN-backed interim government, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. He said the UN had offices in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan which were ‘more dangerous than the Somali capital.’”