U.S. embassy urges no travel, warns of 'imminent attacks'

The U.S. embassy reiterated the level four "do not travel" rating.

Mar 5, 2025 - 17:42

U.S. embassy urges no travel, warns of 'imminent attacks'

While the exact terminology differs from country to country, most nations have a four-tier system that they use to rank countries based on how safe they are for citizens to visit.

In the U.S., the State Department assigns level one's "exercise normal precautions" to countries that are just as or in some cases even safer to be in than at home — Australia, Japan and Canada are some countries with this rating — while level four is usually given to countries actively at war or with authoritarian governments.

As of March 2025, some countries with the "do not travel" ranking include North Korea, Russia, Haiti, and Afghanistan.

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Here is what you need to know about the latest travel warning for Somalia

Another country under the level four ranking, the East African nation of Somalia has been seeing new spikes of instability even after years of war. This week, the U.S. Embassy in the country sent out an advisory reiterating the rating that "remains in effect due to crime, terrorism, civil unrest, health issues, kidnapping, and piracy."

The country has been at civil war since the 1990s after several rebel militant groups tried seize power; fighting accelerated after Trump ordered military airstrikes against suspected terrorist hotbeds in the northeastern part of the country during his first weeks in office.

While Trump has framed it as "getting the job done" and taking care of radicals in a way that predecessor Biden did not, the U.S. embassy in Somalia warned that it has led to heightened risk of terror attacks against Americans in the area.

The embassy said that it received "credible information related to potential imminent attacks against multiple locations in Somalia including Mogadishu's Aden Adde International Airport"; diplomats and other embassy personnel in the country have been ordered to stay in place and not move around.

The Somalian capital of Mogadishu is home to over two million people.
MDOGAN / Shutterstock

'They may conduct attacks with little or no warning'

"The U.S. Embassy in Somalia reminds U.S. citizens that terrorists continue to plot kidnappings, bombings, and other attacks in Somalia,” the March 4 statement reads. "They may conduct attacks with little or no warning, targeting airports and seaports, checkpoints, government buildings, hotels, restaurants, shopping areas, and other areas where large crowds gather and Westerners frequent, as well as government, military, and Western convoys."

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Due to decades-long fighting, very few Westerners ever make their way to Somalia for anything other than diplomatic or humanitarian missions. Other countries on the African continent to have the same rating include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Burkina Faso, Sudan and Central African Republic.

The most popular African countries for international tourists are, meanwhile, North African nations such as Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia — a combined 40 million tourists visited those three nations last year — as well as "safari destinations" such as Tanzania, Botswana and Kenya.

At the end of 2023, the latter country completely scrapped the visa requirement for foreign arrivals regardless of their nationality. The electronic travel authorization put in its place is significantly easier to obtain as it does not require an embassy visit and is meant to help drive tourism to the country.