For a country that has been at the bottom of global rankings on the basis of transparency, human development, passport power, and safety, oil is seen as a source of hard currency to turn things around and fuel development.

On 2 December 2018, the United States Department of State announced the re-establishment of “permanent diplomatic presence” in Somalia nearly three decades after closing the US embassy in Mogadishu at the onset of the Somali conflict in 1991.