The president of Somalia is meeting with members of Minnesota's Somali community as part of a tour to build support for his tenuous government, according to AP. President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed told those at a Books for Africa event Saturday that he wants to find a solution to violence that has plagued his country for decades. Speaking through an interpreter, he said the problems in Somalia are not clans fighting each other, but rather a «foreign idea» trying to take hold. An Islamic militant group called al-Shabab, which the U.S. says has ties to al-Qaida, is leading much of the fighting in Somalia. As many as 20 young Somali men from Minnesota are believed to have traveled to Somalia to fight. Three have died. Ahmed plans to head to Chicago and Columbus, Ohio, after Minnesota.
