UK names 6th ambassador to Somalia since resumption of relations

GOOBJOOG NEWS|MOGADISHU:    The UK government has announced a new ambassador to Somalia to replace Ben Fender who has been in the same capacity since 2019.

Kate Foster (pictured) who until her appointment was the deputy director, International Affairs at the Cabinet Office now becomes the sixth UK ambassador to Somalia since the resumption of relations in 2012.

According to a statement put out by the Her Majesty Government, Foster will take up her role as the new ambassador to Somalia in February. She replaces Fender ‘who will be transferring to another Diplomatic Service appointment’.

Foster has served variously in the government taking up tasks in Africa including heading the UK Ebola Response in Sierra Leone. She has also worked in the humanitarian sector with Save the Children and International Rescue Committee.

Unlike her predecessors, Foster comes to Somalia at a time the UK is ultimately leaving the European Union and will now be overseeing changes some of which have hitherto been handled at the bloc level. She will also be projecting her country’s long-running position in Somalia as the pen holder at a time geopolitical alignment in the Horn of Africa is fast taking shape.

Other areas of interest for the new ambassador will be setting the pace with the new administration in Mogadishu to advance her country’s interests as Somalia opens its oil resources for exploitation.