Two major developments took place in Somalia recently. First, President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed visited the United States for the first time, where he addressed the UN General Assembly and met with several leaders from around the world as well as senior officials in the US government, including Deputy Secretary of State John Burns, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson, and Senior Director for Africa at the National Security Council Michelle Gavin. He also met with influential members of the US Congress, including Senator Russ Feingold, Senator John Kerry, Senator Carl Levin, and the two senators from Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, a state with heavy concentration of Somali Americans.
Second, during his visit, the two main opposition groups in Somalia, Al-Shabaab Movement and Hizbul-Islam, clashed battled heavily over control of the port city of Kismayo. For the first time, these two groups fought openly, killing more than fifty from each side. Eventually, Al-Shabaab drove Hizbul Islam out of Kismayo. The two groups also clashed several times in the Jubba region. In a bid to control the conflict, the leaders of the two groups met in Mogadishu and signed a peace agreement in which they agreed to stop the fighting and initiate dialogue on outstanding issues.