Somalia

United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) was the name for the United Nations involvement into facilitating peace in the war torn Somalia. The purpose of the mission was to maintain the ceasefire created by the UN in the early 1990’s to keep the Somalian Civil War from getting any worse than it already was. The reason of the involvement was to keep the intense violence at a low level and to create peace within the struggling country. A large amount of Somalia’s population was in danger of starvation and lethal disease and the UN attempting to fix the problem by supplying food and water. Somalia was being run by warlords who controlled the supply of food into the country and employed civilians to do their bidding in return for food. The United States mission (UNOSOM II) was split into four phases. The first was to deploy troops and secure harbors and airports for continuous deployments. The second phase was to expand the security zone south. The third was to further expand the security zone into other major areas and the fourth and final was to hand over control to the UN.

                The United States withdrew from Somalia in order to negotiate a peace treaty. The withdrawal was part of the agreement in the peace treaty. From that point on the US was determined to withdraw troops as quickly as possible and use the small surge of troops to aid in the withdrawal.

                Somalia has not had any recognized central government since the fall of its leader, Siad Barre in 1991. There have been multiple attempts to install any type of organized government but all have failed due to the hostility between the nation’s major warlords. These warlords control all of Somalia and refuse to give power to anyone else but themselves.