Tag Archives: Djibouti

Career Diplomat Jonathan Pratt to be U.S. Ambassador to Djibouti

May 13, 2020 By in FSOs, Nominations, Officially In, Trump Tags: , ,

Via WH:

Jonathan Pratt, of California, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Djibouti.

Mr. Pratt, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Counselor, currently serves as the Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs for the State Department.  Mr. Pratt has also held assignments as the Deputy Chief of Mission of the United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, and as the Office Director for Pakistan Affairs in the State Department.  He served earlier as the Political Counselor at the United States Embassy in Islamabad, as the Deputy Chief of Mission of the United States Embassy in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, and as the Political and Economic Section Chief at the United States Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan.

Mr. Pratt’s other assignments include service at the United States Embassies in Angola, Jordan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Mr. Pratt earned a B.A. from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut and an M.A. from the University of California, San Diego.  He is the recipient of the State Department’s James Clement Dunn Award for Excellence and the Director General’s Award for Reporting.  He speaks Chinese, Arabic, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

Related post:

U.S. Embassy Juba: 47 Troops Ordered to South Sudan, 130 Pre-Positioned in Djibouti

July 14, 2016 By in AF |Africa, Americans Abroad, Congress, Consular Work, Evacuations, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Service, India, Obama, Realities of the FS, Security, State Department, U.S. Missions, UK-FCO, US Presidents, War Tags: , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Posted: 2:19 am PT
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On July 13, President Obama informed Congress of the deployment of U.S. Armed Forces personnel to the U.S. Embassy in Juba, South Sudan.

In response to the deteriorating security situation in South Sudan, I have ordered the deployment of additional U.S. Armed Forces personnel to South Sudan to support the security of U.S. personnel, and our Embassy in Juba. The first of these additional personnel, approximately 47 individuals, arrived in South Sudan on July 12, 2016, supported by military aircraft. Although equipped for combat, these additional personnel are deployed for the purpose of protecting U.S. citizens and property. These deployed personnel will remain in South Sudan until the security situation becomes such that their presence is no longer needed. Additional U.S. Armed Forces, including approximately 130 military personnel currently pre-positioned in Djibouti, are prepared to provide support, as necessary, for the security of U.S. citizens and property, including our Embassy, in South Sudan.

On July 13, Embassy Juba also announced two charter flights that will depart Juba for Entebbe, Uganda on Thursday, July 14. Passengers are expected to make onward travel plans themselves. A security message issued previously notes that “seating is very limited”  and that the mission “cannot guarantee availability.”  Passengers are limited to one piece of luggage (20 kg/45 lbs) each.  Pets are not included in the charter flights.  Passengers who are not documented with a valid U.S. passport “will likely not be considered for boarding.”

 

Germany and the EU have completed the evacuation of its citizens on July 13.  The UK and India are in the process of also evacuating their citizens from South Sudan.

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Secretary Kerry’s Sri Lanka-Kenya-Djibouti Trip, May 1-5, 2015 (Photos)

May 4, 2015 By in AF |Africa, Foreign Service, John F. Kerry, Photo of the Day, SCA | South Central Asia, U.S. Missions Tags: , , , , , ,

Posted: 2:04 am EDT
Updated: May 12, 2015 at 1:25 pm PDT
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Secretary Kerry is traveling to Sri Lanka, Kenya and Djibouti from May 1-5, 2015. He was in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on May 2, his first trip to the country.  Secretary Kerry’s second stop was Nairobi, Kenya on May 3, according to the State Department “to reinforce the importance of our strong bilateral relationship.”  He will reportedly discuss a range of issues including security cooperation — particularly in light of the recent tragic attack at Garissa University College – refugee assistance, trade, and biodiversity.  On May 5, Secretary will travel to Djibouti, Djibouti.  He will meet high-level leaders to discuss our bilateral cooperation and their support to evacuation efforts from Yemen. He will also visit with U.S. military personnel at Camp Lemonnier.  This is the first time that a sitting Secretary of State will visit Djibouti.

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Secretary Kerry Walks With Monk In Processional to Kelaniya Temple in Colombo U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry walks with a monk in a processional to the Kelaniya Temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka on May 2, 2015. [State Department Photo/Public Domain]

Secretary Kerry Walks With Monk In Processional to Kelaniya Temple in Colombo
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry walks with a monk in a processional to the Kelaniya Temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka on May 2, 2015. [State Department Photo/Public Domain]

Secretary Kerry Salutes Longtime Embassy Sri Lanka Worker During Employee Meet-and-Greet in Colombo U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry salutes a longtime Embassy employee who has worked on behalf of the United States for over 30 years as he addressed employees and family members from U.S. Embassy Sri Lanka on May 3, 2015, in Colombo, Sri Lanka. [State Department Photo/Public Domain]

Secretary Kerry Salutes Longtime Embassy Sri Lanka Worker During Employee Meet-and-Greet in Colombo
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry salutes a longtime Embassy employee who has worked on behalf of the United States for over 30 years as he addressed employees and family members from U.S. Embassy Sri Lanka on May 3, 2015, in Colombo, Sri Lanka. [State Department Photo/Public Domain]

Nairobi, Kenya

Secretary Kerry Poses for a Photo with a Baby Elephant at the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry poses for a photo with a baby elephant at the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi National Park in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 3, 2015, following a wildlife tour of the Park and before a series of government meetings. [State Department Photo/Public Domain]

Secretary Kerry Poses for a Photo with a Baby Elephant at the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry poses for a photo with a baby elephant at the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi National Park in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 3, 2015, following a wildlife tour of the Park and before a series of government meetings. [State Department Photo/Public Domain]

Secretary Kerry Feeds a Baby Elephant at the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry feeds a baby elephant at the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi National Park in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 3, 2015, following a wildlife tour of the Park and before a series of government meetings. [State Department Photo/Public Domain]

Secretary Kerry Feeds a Baby Elephant at the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry feeds a baby elephant at the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi National Park in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 3, 2015, following a wildlife tour of the Park and before a series of government meetings. [State Department Photo/Public Domain]

Photos from the trip are available here.  We will add photos from the Djibouti stop when they become available.  A couple of pics from Djibouti:
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Stranded in Yemen: Americans left to find own way out, but exactly how many more AmCits are left there?

April 21, 2015 By in Americans Abroad, Consular Work, Evacuations, Foreign Policy, Foreign Service, Secretary of State, Security, State Department, U.S. Missions Tags: , , , , , , 2 Comments

Posted: 7:01 pm EDT
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Via CNN:

“My son served in the army for four years. In Iraq. He served because we love our country. As we should. Now look at us?”
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Muna is from Buffalo in upstate New York. Her family is among the dozens of Americans caught in the crossfire of warring parties in Yemen. And although many other countries evacuated their citizens, India most notably ferrying out around 5,000, the United States has said it is too dangerous for them to directly evacuate American nationals.

screenshot of CNN video

screenshot of CNN video

For Muna, her ordeal ended at Djibouti Port where Christina Higgins, the U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission, was among the embassy staff waiting to meet them. I asked Higgins about the sense of abandonment Muna and many of the other Americans trapped in Yemen said they felt.

“We have one of the branches of al Qaeda that’s especially active. There’s the Houthis — neither of these two groups friendly to U.S. citizens. We’ve had to weigh very, very carefully what is the safest way, the best way for us to help them.”

Higgins said ultimately each U.S. citizen is going to have to judge what is best for themselves and their families.

“For many U.S. citizens, that’s going to mean sheltering in place. For other U.S. citizens, we’re actively working at getting information to them on different avenues for travel out of Yemen.”

Read in full here.

Also read: After hours at sea, chaos and desperation at Yemeni city

 

IOM announced today that it has temporarily suspended is evacuation operations in Yemen. It also says, “To date, operations continue to be hampered by unacceptable demands in regard to the identity of passengers to be evacuated by IOM. Security conditions within and around Sana’a airport have also worsened, affecting the ability of IOM staff to operate on airport grounds.”

 

Meanwhile in Djibouti:

 

Also this one on the DPB on April 20, we’re not sure which email is this referring to:

QUESTION: — between a Yemen – or a U.S. citizen stuck in Yemen.

MS HARF: Yep.

QUESTION: I know you can’t comment on the specific case —

MS HARF: Correct.

QUESTION: — but just the language of that email that she had the exchange with, is that the kind of language that Americans still stuck in Yemen can expect?

MS HARF: Yes, I saw that email exchange. I think a couple points on that. The first is if you look at a majority of that email, it’s really the same messages I’ve been giving from the podium about the fact that we have been warning for some time, that we are trying to do things to assist. And we have a number of people – we’ve actually increased our consular staff in Djibouti to help consular services to Americans who have been able to leave Yemen. But we have consular officers who are working around the clock in Djibouti and elsewhere doing so.

I think, look, that language is probably not typical of the services we’re providing to Americans, candidly. I probably wouldn’t have used it. But I think looking at our broader efforts in terms of the consular support we’re giving to Americans, even in a very difficult operating environment where we don’t have an embassy, where we have been warning, we – our consular officers really are working very hard to get them what they need even, again, under very difficult circumstances.

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The State Department to date has refused to give an estimate a guesstimate on the American citizen population in Yemen. The OIG report back in 2010 estimated that the Yemeni-American community was about 55,000. Our source from Consular Affairs who is not authorized to speak for the bureau indicates that the most recent estimate is actually much higher than that OIG number.

Odd thing about this? There was a congressional hearing on Yemen several days ago. The congressional reps did not ask about this. The NEA principal deputy assistance secretary of state on that hearing did not talk about this.  And so far, we haven’t heard from the angry old men in the Senate chamber screaming over the abandonment of U.S. citizens in foreign country.

In related news, last week, the Council on American-Islamic Relations filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government on behalf of dozens of Yemeni-Americans trapped in Yemen for failure to evacuate them.  Today, a San Francisco man has sued the State Department in federal court, claiming that American embassy officials in Yemen illegally revoked his passport and left him stranded in that country for more than a year. This passport revocation case is just the latest in a string of lawsuits alleging improper revocation of passports by the U.S. Embassy in Yemen.

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US Embassy Djibouti: Over 300 Americans/Family Members Evacuated From Yemen on 12 Ships, 1 Plane

April 14, 2015 By in AF |Africa, Ambassadors, Americans Abroad, Consular Work, Evacuations, Foreign Service, FSOs, Functional Bureaus, NEA|Near East Asia, U.S. Missions, War Tags: , , , , ,

Posted: 6:48 pm EDT
Updated: 7:23 pm EDT
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On April 13, we posted about US Embassy Djibouti’s ongoing response to the crisis in Yemen (see US Embassy Djibouti Welcomes 140 American Evacuees From Yemen, Thanks India and Djibouti For Help). We sent Ambassador Tom Kelly a consular staffing question on Twitter and he responded.

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Hey, ain’t Twitter great!

Approximately 300 U.S. citizens and family members have made it to Djibouti to date. Below is a quick rundown of evacuees:

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We asked about consular staffing support because we anticipate that the evacuees coming from Yemen would have a good number of undocumented family members. Not all embassy staffers are well-versed in citizenship and passport regulations. So we are pleased to hear that reinforcements are there with more in the works.

Ambassador Kelly was nominated to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Djibouti on On April 7, 2014.  He assumed the ambassadorial duties on September 8, 2014. Prior to this appointment, he served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs from August 2011 to September 2014.

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Updated with details from April 8 Daily Press Briefing:

QUESTION: Right. The ambassador said today earlier, I think, that they were getting reinforcements to help. What does that mean?

MS HARF: Yeah, so I have some – yep, I have some more information on that. So while awaiting security screening and processing by Djiboutian immigration officials, U.S. citizens and their families have been offered food, water, medical attention, hygiene items, infant care items, access to phones to contact relatives, and when feasible, a place to – it’s quite hot there; I think a place to stay and remain that’s out of the heat and a little more comfortable. These have been – much of this food and the items have been provided by embassy employees and local staff, which I think is important. The Department of Homeland Security has granted exceptional authority for the consular team in Djibouti to accept and approve immigrant visa petitions for spouses, children, and parents of U.S. citizens. The State Department is working to transfer immigrant visa cases for recently arrived refugees to Djibouti. We are also increasing consular staffing in Djibouti in order to process petitions for immigrant visa cases as quickly as possible; also to help Yemeni – help U.S. citizens with Yemeni family members find long-term housing while they work through their options here.

So we are doing a number of things in Djibouti. This is where many of people – the people leaving Yemen have gone. Our ambassador, I think, is sharing some of these experiences on Twitter, so I’d check those out as well.

QUESTION: Yeah, that’s where that came – but do you have a rough estimate? Is it a couple hundred people? How many are we talking about?

MS HARF: We’re not exactly sure. We’ve – I think he tweeted something like 149 or something like that. We know of a couple hundred; we just don’t know if that’s everyone.

QUESTION: Right.

MS HARF: So we don’t know how accurate it is.

QUESTION: But that doesn’t – that’s only the ones who have American citizenship. That might not include —

MS HARF: Correct.

QUESTION: — their families and spouses.

MS HARF: That is my understanding.

QUESTION: And so when you have – DHS has given your – are they sending people there, or is it they’ve just basically delegated —

MS HARF: Our – I think our consular team is sending additional people there.

QUESTION: So if you are a – the wife of an American citizen who is trying to get an immigrant visa, what’s the timeframe we’re talking about – looking at here?

MS HARF: I don’t know what the timeframe is. I’m happy to check. I don’t know.

QUESTION: But they would have to stay, though, in Djibouti until —

MS HARF: Well, they couldn’t come to the United States, ostensibly.

QUESTION: Okay. So —

MS HARF: Right.

QUESTION: But the process, though, is not a short one, is it? I mean, it’s —

MS HARF: I – Matt, I —

QUESTION: I’m not saying – I’m not making the argument that it is.

MS HARF: I don’t know. I’m happy to check. I don’t know.

QUESTION: Okay. All right.

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US Embassy Djibouti Welcomes 140 American Evacuees From Yemen, Thanks India and Djibouti For Help

April 13, 2015 By in Ambassadors, Americans Abroad, Consular Work, Evacuations, U.S. Missions Tags: , , , , ,

Posted: 9:58 am PDT
Updated: April 14, 10:01 am PDT
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The US Embassy in Djibouti says that the crisis in Yemen has become a top priority for the embassy and that Ambassador Tom Kelly and his staff have worked very closely with their Djiboutian counterparts to provide support and assistance to the American evacuees from Yemen .

 

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More photos available here.  There was a time not too long ago when the consular section at Embassy Djibouti consisted on one entry level FSO and three local staff. We are presuming that in anticipation of the arrival of evacuees from Yemen that the CA bureau had sent additional temporary assistance to Djibouti but we have yet to confirm that.

Meanwhile, the US Embassy in Yemen announced today that another Indian naval ship, the Sumitra, is currently in Hodeidah and will be departing for Djibouti either tonight or tomorrow. As was the case two days ago, the embassy has no information on who to contact to board this ship.  The State Department Yemen Crisis page is here.

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Update 4/14/15

 

U.S. Embassy Djibouti to Close to the Public on Thursday, March 19 for Security Posture Review

March 18, 2015 By in AF |Africa, Americans Abroad, Consular Work, Foreign Service, Realities of the FS, Security, State Department, U.S. Missions Tags: , , ,

Posted: 5:38 pm PDT
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On March 18, the U.S. Embassy in Djibouti sent out a security message informing Americans residing in the country that it will be closed to the public on Thursday, March 19, to review its security posture.  The statement says that the Embassy will reopen for regular business on Sunday, March 22.  Emergency consular services for U.S. citizens will be available.

All U.S. citizens are encouraged to maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to enhance your personal security, follow instructions of local authorities, and read the most current Travel Warnings and Country Specific Information for Djibouti.
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The U.S. Embassy in Djibouti is located at Lotissement Haramous Lot # 350B. You can contact the Consular Section of the Embassy via email at ConsularDjibouti@State.gov or by phone at, tel.  +(253) 21-45-30-00.   For after-hours emergencies, please call +(253) 77-87-72-29.

Map of Djibouti

Map from CIA World Factbook

The State Department had previously released a Travel Warning for Djibouti in November 2014 warning U.S. citizens of the risks of traveling to Djibouti. It also urged U.S. citizens in Djibouti to evaluate their personal security situation in light of specific threats from terrorism.

The U.S. government continues to receive information about potential terrorist threats aimed at Western (including U.S.) and Djiboutian interests in Djibouti.  Terrorist acts can include suicide operations, bombings (to include car bombings), kidnappings, attacks on civil aviation, and attacks on maritime vessels in or near Djiboutian ports.  Attacks may target official government facilities, including Embassies and military installations, as well as soft targets such as restaurants, clubs, hotels, and other commercial entities.  While Djiboutian officials continue the pursuit of those responsible for previous terrorist attacks, many of those involved remain at large and still operate in the region.  Travelers should also consult the Worldwide Cautionfor further information and details.

On May 24, 2014, two suicide bombers attacked a restaurant popular with Westerners in Djibouti’s city center.  One person was killed and others were severely injured.  Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for this attack, and renewed its previously stated intent to conduct similar attacks in Djibouti against both Djiboutian and Western targets.  These threats have been regularly repeated since 2011, following Djibouti’s commitment to contribute forces to the African Union Mission in Somali (AMISOM).

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Confirmations: Stuart Jones (Iraq), Robert Beecroft (Egypt), Thomas P. Kelly III (Djibouti

June 26, 2014 By in Ambassadors, Confirmations, Congress, FSOs, Iraq, Staffing the FS, U.S. Missions, US Embassy Baghdad, US Embassy Egypt Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

— Domani Spero
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That did not take long.  On June 25, the SFRC cleared President Obama’s nominees for Iraq and Egypt.  Today, the U.S. Senate confirmed the nominees for those two posts:

Stuart E. Jones, of Virginia, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Iraq; Confirmed: 93-0

Robert Stephen Beecroft, of California, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Arab Republic of Egypt (voice vote)

Yesterday, the Senate also confirmed the nomination of our next ambassador to Djibouti:

Thomas P. Kelly III, of California, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Djibouti.

 

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