15th September 2016 Mogadishu, Somalia
I recently joined the small team of British military advisors, currently deployed in Somalia to train, equip and advise the Somali National Army (SNA). It’s a fascinating job, with every day throwing up a completely new and unique set of challenges – no week is the same in this role. We do a wide range […]
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1st September 2016 Mogadishu, Somalia
Lots of people I meet are curious about life in the Embassy. It’s a bit of a mystery to those who haven’t experienced it. We are a couple of dozen people ‘packed’ into a rectangle the size of a football field where we work, eat, exercise and sleep. There isn’t a lot of room, and […]
23rd August 2016 Mogadishu, Somalia
Over the next few months, I’ll be using this blog to share with you a little of my life and work here in Mogadishu. This week I’ve been struck by the variety of my work. It won’t be a surprise to hear that we’ve been working hard on security and governance issues. They are staples […]
4th July 2016 Ottawa, Canada
A diplomatic life is often one of contrasts. One year you can be working on climate change, another you’re promoting human rights in North Africa. That’s what makes this career so varied and challenging.
9th May 2013
Prime Minister David Cameron and President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of Somalia co-hosted an important conference on Somalia in London on 7 May. As I told Vatican Radio, the conference was held under very different circumstances from the February 2012 London Somalia conference. Shortly before then, Benedict XVI had called on the world to act in […]
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9th January 2013 Nairobi, Kenya
A year ago, few predicted that Somalia would see such significant changes; yet 2012 saw some real progress in Somalia – including the end of the Transition; a new Parliament (with a significant number of new MPs); the election of a new, reform-minded Speaker and President and a desire for a different type of politics. […]
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5th April 2012 Nairobi, Kenya
Yesterday’s horrific bomb attack in Mogadishu has served as yet another reminder of Al Shabaab’s cruel and twisted ideology. The day was meant to be one of celebration – marking the first anniversary of the launch of Somali National Television at the newly re-opened National Theatre. Yet it is to be remembered now for the […]
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21st February 2012 Nairobi, Kenya
As the first British Ambassador to Somalia for twenty years, people often ask me why we should get involved with Somalia at all: haven’t we got enough to worry about? Somalia has an unenviable record as a failed state. Its twenty-year civil war has brought lawlessness and chaos at a massive human cost: one million […]
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10th February 2012 Nairobi, Kenya
It’s been quite a fortnight. At the end of January, I accompanied the UK Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, to the AU Summit in Addis Ababa and then to Somalia. In Dollow – the first time a British Minister has visited southern Somalia in recent years, Mr Mitchell saw for himself the huge difference that UKaid […]
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20th January 2012 Nairobi, Kenya
Thank you for the fantastic response to my previous blog. It’s great to see so many comments. For my next few blogs I intend to focus on the key themes of the London Conference, and would like to ask that comments try to focus on each of those issues. So, in this blog I want […]
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