Donald Yamamoto

Donald Yukio Yamamoto (born 1953) 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.