Apparently there’s no safe passage in Somalia, either by sea or air. Today UN Dispatch interviewee (and U.S. Congressman) Donald Payne’s plane was fired on as it took off from an airport in Mogadishu. Payne landed safely in Nairobi.
This, apparently, isn’t the first time the Congressman’s plane has been attacked on a trip to Somalia. Payne, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, was in Mogadishu meeting with the interim government’s president and prime minister in hopes of exploring ways to help stabilize the country. Do we need more evidence that other leaders should be doing the same?