Battle of Mogadishu

Mission shift to nation-building

A key moment in the operation was when the mission shifted from delivering food supplies to nation-building.

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On 3 March 1993, the Secretary-General submitted to the Security Council his recommendations for effecting the transition from UNITAF to UNOSOM II. He indicated that since the adoption of Council resolution 794 (1992) in December 1992, the presence and operations of UNITAF had a positive impact on the security situation in Somalia and on the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance (UNITAF deployed some 37,000 personnel over forty percent of southern and central Somalia). However, there was still no effective government, police or national army, with the result of serious security threats to UN personnel. To that end, the UN Security Council endowed UNOSOM II with the powers to establish a secure environment throughout Somalia, to achieve national reconciliation so as to create a democratic state.

Related Topics:
UNITAF - UNOSOM II

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At the Conference on National Reconciliation in Somalia, held on 15 March 1993 in Addis Ababa, all fifteen Somali parties agreed to the terms set out to restore peace and democracy. Yet by May it became clear that, although signatory to the March Agreement, General Mohammed Farrah Aidid's faction would not cooperate in the Agreement's implementation.

Related Topics:
15 - March - 1993 - May

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UNOSOM II's attempts to implement disarmament led to violence. On June 5 1993, twenty-four Pakistani troops in the UN force were killed in an ambush in an area of Mogadishu, controlled by Aidid. Any hope of a peaceful resolution of the conflict quickly vanished. The next day, the United Nations Security Council issued Resolution 837 calling for the arrest and trial of those responsible for the ambush.

Related Topics:
June 5 - 1993

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One of the most unfortunate results of this occured on July 12 when a United States-led operation was launched on what was believed to be a safe house in Mogadishu where members of Aidid's Habr Gedir clan were supposedly meeting to plan more violence against U.S. and U.N. forces. In reality, elders of the clan, not gunmen, were meeting in the house. According to U.N. officials, the agenda (which was advertised in the local newspaper) was to discuss ways to peacefully resolve the conflict between Aidid and the multinational task force in Somalia, and perhaps even to remove Aidid as leader of the clan.

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What eventually took place on July 12, 1993, was a 17-minute combat operation in which U.S. Cobra attack helicopters fired 16 TOW missiles and thousands of 20-millimeter cannon rounds into the compound. When the operation was over and the smoke had cleared, more than 50 of the clan elders, the oldest and most respected in their community, were dead. Many in Mogadishu state that this was the turning point in unifying Somalians against the U.S. and U.N. efforts here. It would also lead to the deaths of four journalists,

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Dan Eldon, Hos Maina, Hansi Kraus and Anthony Macharia, who were

Related Topics:
Dan Eldon - Hos Maina - Hansi Kraus - Anthony Macharia

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killed by angry Somali mobs when they arrived to cover the incident.

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A fifth journalist, Scott Peterson, was injured but was rescued by his driver.

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