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Ahmed Isse Awad
Ahmed Isse Awad ( Soomaali: Axmed Ciise Cawad) is the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (commonly shortened to Foreign Minister) is the minister in the Government of the Federal Republic of Somalia who is responsible for overseeing the international diplomacy section of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Ambassador Ahmed Ise Awad was appointed as Foreign Minister on 4 January 2018.

He served as Somalia’s Ambassador to the United States from September 2015 to January 2018. Ambassador Awad had the honour of reopening the Somali Embassy in Washington, D.C., after it has been closed for twenty-four years. He demonstrated solid leadership as Somalia was regaining her place in the International arena.

Early life
Awad was born in Garowe, Somalia, in the northern part of that country. He left Somalia in 1991 when the civil war began in there, settling in Canada where he became a citizen. Awad returned to Africa to study, earning a Master’s in managing peace and security in Africa from the Addis Ababa Institute for Peace and Security Studies. He subsequently became chief of staff to Somalia’s prime minister, primarily Hassan Abshir Farah, from 2001 to 2004. There, he participated in the ultimately failed Somali peace talks held in 2003-04 in Kenya.

Awad then went to Sudan to work for the United Nations on peacekeeping missions for nearly 10 years, serving in Abyei, Kaduqli and Darfur. In 2014, Awad was in the mix to become Somalia’s next prime minister, but the office went to his predecessor in Washington, the Former Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, who was ambassador to the United States for a few months that year. The following year, Awad was appointed to set up the Embassy.

Somalia’s previous embassy was abandoned in 1991 and the State Department sold the property, holding the funds in escrow for the Somali government. Those funds are now being used to rent office space in the capital.

Personal life
Awad is married to Sarah Ashraf and has a daughter.