Addis Ababa, 6 May 2015 (WIC) - US Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that war-torn Somalia was facing a better future, as he made a landmark visit as the most senior US official to visit since Washington’s doomed military intervention more than two decades ago.

The top US diplomat spent just a few hours in the capital, Mogadishu, and did not venture out of the heavily-fortified airport, where he met Somalia’s internationally-backed President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmake.

“More than 20 years ago, the United States was forced to pull back from your country,” Kerry said, referring to the infamous ‘Black Hawk Down’ battle of 1993, when 18 American soldiers and hundreds of Somalis were killed during a military and humanitarian intervention that went wrong.

“I visited Somalia today because your country is turning around,” Kerry said. “Now we are returning in collaboration with the international community and bearing high hopes - but also mixed with ongoing concerns.”

Kerry’s visit was aimed at giving a diplomatic push to Somalia’s fragile government in their fight against Al-Qaeda’s Somalia branch, the Shebab. Despite losing territory, the militants have continued to attack in the capital, across the country, and in neighbouring states.

“The next time I come, we have to be able to just walk downtown,” Kerry said as he met President Mohamud, whose presidential compound — the Villa Somalia — has been a regular target of Shebab suicide attackers.

“Downtown Mogadishu is very different now than it was two years ago,” the Somali president replied, asserting that security was steadily improving and describing Kerry’s flying visit as a “great moment” for the chronically unstable nation.

Kerry promised further US support for Somalia, a country wracked by war and repeated humanitarian crises since the collapse of Siad Barre’s hardline regime in 1991.

“We all have a stake in your success. The world cannot afford to have places on the map that are essentially ungoverned. That is why Somalia’s return to effective government is an historic opportunity,” Kerry said in a video message to the people of Somalia. (AFP)