Donald Yamamoto
Donald Yukio Yamamoto is an American diplomat who served as the United States ambassador to Somalia from 2018 to 2021. Before that he was the acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, with a term of appointment starting September 3, 2017 until July 23, 2018. Yamamoto previously served as the Senior Vice President of International Programs and Outreach at the National Defense University from 2016 to 2017. Prior to that, he was senior advisor to the Director General of the Foreign Service on personnel reform from 2015 to 2016; he served as Chargé d'Affaires at the U.S. Mission Somalia office in Mogadishu in 2016; and in senior positions in Kabul, Mazar e-Sharif, and Bagram, Afghanistan from 2014 to 2015.
He was the former acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from March 30, 2013 to August 5, 2013, U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia from 2006 to 2009 and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary within the Bureau of African Affairs. He was appointed by President George W. Bush in November 2006 and presented his credentials to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in Addis Ababa on December 6, 2006. He was formerly the U.S. ambassador to Djibouti from 2000 to 2003 and Chargé d’Affaires ad interim for Eritrea from 1997 to 1998.
Early life and education
Yamamoto was born in Seattle, Washington to a Japanese immigrant father and a Nisei mother. Yamamoto later graduated from Columbia College of Columbia University in 1975 and School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University in 1978.Yamamoto entered the United States Foreign Service in 1980, serving primarily in Africa, with assignments in the Middle East and Asia, including U.S. Embassy Beijing, and U.S. Consulate Fukuoka. He received a master's degree from the National War College in 1996 and worked on Capitol Hill on a Congressional Fellowship in 1991.
He is the recipient of a Presidential Distinguished Service Award, Presidential Meritorious Service Award, Secretary's Distinguished Honor Award, over a dozen Senior Performance Awards, the State Department's 2006 Robert Frasure Memorial Award for advancing conflict resolution in Africa, and numerous other awards. He is also one of the youngest diplomats to be promoted to the rank of Career Minister.
Diplomatic career
U.S.-Chadian relations
From April 22–23, 2006, Yamamoto met with current Chadian President Idriss Déby to discuss Chad's dispute with the World Bank over allocation of its petroleum funds and the possibility of a U.S.-led, United Nations-monitored peace keeping force to end the Chadian-Sudanese conflict.The Government of Chad repeatedly accused the Government of Sudan of complicity in United Front for Democratic Change incursions from Darfur into eastern Chad. Yamamoto is the first official in any government outside of Chad to repeat this claim, saying, "It is evident that there was safe haven and logistical support provided to rebel groups."
Chad produces around 100,000 bpd which travels through the Chad-Cameroon pipeline, owned and operated by US companies ExxonMobil and Chevron and Malaysian Petronas. The Déby administration threatened to cut off the supply of oil at the end of April if the international community did not intervene to end the rebellion or if ExxonMobil did not pay the government $100 million.
The dispute was later resolved, and Chad's oil continues to flow to other countries.