Biden nominates Larry André Jr as new Ambassador to Somalia

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Amb. Larry André Jr., U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Djibouti, presents a gift to the Ali Oune, Djibouti, elder during a visit to the construction site of the future Ali Oune, Djibouti, Women’s Medical Clinic, Dec. 3, 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Shawn Nickel)

Mogadishu (HOL) – U.S. President Joe Biden announced that he had nominated Larry Edward André Jr as the Ambassador to Somalia on Thursday, according to a statement from the White House. André served as ambassador to Mauritania and Djibouti. He last held the position of Chargé d’Affaires ad interim at U.S. Embassy Juba, South Sudan.

André will replace Donald Yamamoto, who has served as the Ambassador to Somalia since November 2018.

André was among nine diplomats nominated for ambassadorship on Thursday by President Biden, and the appointments would mark the first selection of overseas envoys since taking up office.

André earned a B.A. from Claremont McKenna College and an MBA from Arizona State University/American Graduate School of International Management.

Larry André Jr is a decorated career diplomat with a significant experience in Africa. He was appointed to nine missions abroad and held several senior positions throughout the State Department.

André joined the Foreign Service in 1990 with early postings in Nigeria and Cameroon. He later served as a management officer at the embassy in Conakry, Guinea, from 1998 to 2000.

He landed in the Horn of Africa as a regional environment officer for East Africa, working out of the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa from 2000 to 2002.

He returned to West Africa as the chief of mission at the embassy in Freetown, Sierra Leone, from 2002-2004.

After nearly 15 years working in Africa, André returned to Washington DC but continued at the State Department. He served as the deputy director of the Office of West African Affairs in the Bureau of African Affairs from 2004 to 2006.

He returned to East Africa in 2006, where André was a political counsellor at the U.S Embassy in Nairobi until 2008 where he moved to the embassy in Dar es Salaam. André was the Deputy Chief of Mission there until 2010.

André was the been envoy and director of the Office of the Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan at the State Department when he stepped into his first role as an Ambassador in September 2014 when then-President Barack Obama nominated him as the ambassador to Mauritania.

He served in Nouakchott for three years but was moved to Djibouti by former President Donald Trump in 2017. He replaced Tom Kelly, who served in Djibouti City from June 2014 to January 2017.

André speaks fluent French.