The Unified Task Force (UNITAF), also known as Operation Restore Hope, was a
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
-led,
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
-sanctioned multinational military force deployed to
Somalia
Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...
from 5 December 1992 to 4 May 1993. It was established to replace
United Nations Operation in Somalia I (UNOSOM I), which had been deployed in April 1992 in response to the
1992 famine—a crisis that followed the 1991 collapse of the
Somali Democratic Republic
The Somali Democratic Republic (; , ; ) was a socialist state in Somalia that existed from 1969 to 1991.
Established in October 1969, the Somali Democratic Republic emerged following a 1969 Somali coup d'état, coup d'état led by Major General ...
and the full outbreak of the
Somali Civil War
The Somali Civil War (; ) is an List of ongoing armed conflicts, ongoing civil war that is taking place in Somalia. It grew out of resistance to the military junta which was led by Siad Barre during the 1980s. From 1988 to 1990, the Somali Armed ...
.
UNITAF was mandated to create a secure environment for humanitarian operations "by all necessary means". The task force, led by 28,000
US troops, included international contributions from dozens of armed forces, totaling around 37,000 troops. Military deployments focused on the south, as central and northern Somalia remained relatively stable. UNITAF forces began landing in Somalia during early December 1992, just as the famine was concluding and had the effect of speeding the conclusion of the crisis by about a month.
Aspects of the operation, in particular the large foreign military deployment, faced opposition from significant segments of Somali society and major factions such as the
Somali National Alliance
The Somali National Alliance (abbreviated SNA) was a major politico-military faction formed on 16 June 1992 by four different rebel groups that had been in opposition to the regime of former President Mohamed Siad Barre. The SNA was among the f ...
and
Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya.
Several instances human rights violations by UN contingents later emerged, including Canada’s
Somalia Affair and Italy’s Gallo Commission, which exposed cases of abuse and murder of civilians.
Overall, UNITAF avoided an armed conflict due to American Lt. Gen.
Robert B. Johnston's strict
rules of engagement, aimed at winning the Somali publics confidence—an approach abandoned in the succeeding phase of the UN operation in Somalia.
In May 1993, UNITAF handed over its responsibilities to
United Nations Operation in Somalia II
The United Nations Operation in Somalia II (UNOSOM II) was the second phase of the United Nations intervention in Somalia and took place from March 1993 until March 1995, following the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991. UNOSOM II carried o ...
(UNOSOM II), transitioning to a broader UN-led mission—though the operation effectively remained under US control.
According to journalist Scott Peterson, approximately 10,000–25,000 lives were saved as a result of the UNITAF and UNOSOM II operation.'
Background
During the 1980s, the
Somali Rebellion
The Somali Rebellion was the start of the Somali Civil War that began in the 1970s and resulted in the collapse of the Somali Democratic Republic in 1991. The rebellion effectively began in 1978 following a failed coup d’état and Presiden ...
intensified, eventually culminating in the outbreak of
full-scale civil war in 1991, which led to the collapse of the
Somali Democratic Republic
The Somali Democratic Republic (; , ; ) was a socialist state in Somalia that existed from 1969 to 1991.
Established in October 1969, the Somali Democratic Republic emerged following a 1969 Somali coup d'état, coup d'état led by Major General ...
. The following year,
a famine emerged, driven by both a major
drought
A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...
and the serious fighting that engulfed the nation’s
breadbasket
The breadbasket of a country or of a region is an area which, because of the richness of the soil and/or advantageous climate, produces large quantities of wheat or other grain. Rice bowl is a similar term used to refer to Southeast Asia; Calif ...
in the southern regions.
Deployment of UN forces
Faced with a humanitarian disaster in Somalia, exacerbated by a complete breakdown in civil order, the United Nations created the
UNOSOM I
United Nations Operation in Somalia I (UNOSOM I) was the first part of a United Nations (UN) sponsored effort to provide, facilitate, and secure humanitarian relief in Somalia, as well as to monitor the first UN-brokered ceasefire of the Somal ...
mission in April 1992. During July 1992 the first UN troops landed in Somalia, seven
Pakistani military troops under the command of
Brigadier-General Imtiaz Shaheen. Some elements were actively opposing the UNOSOM intervention. Troops were shot at, aid ships attacked and prevented from docking, cargo aircraft were fired upon and aid agencies, public and private, were subject to threats, looting and extortion.
In August 1992, UNOSOM I head
Mohammed Sahnoun secured an agreement with
Mohamed Farah Aidid and the
Somali National Alliance
The Somali National Alliance (abbreviated SNA) was a major politico-military faction formed on 16 June 1992 by four different rebel groups that had been in opposition to the regime of former President Mohamed Siad Barre. The SNA was among the f ...
(SNA) to allow 500 UN peacekeepers, with the condition that any further deployments required SNA approval. However, later that month, UN Secretary-General
Boutros Ghali announced plans to expand UNOSOM to 3,500 troops without consultation, to the surprise of both Sahnoun and the SNA. According to Professor Stephen Hill, Sahnoun recognized this move would undermine his local support, as it was made “without consulting Somali leaders and community elders.” He attempted to delay the deployment but was overruled by UN headquarters.' The large-scale foreign intervention in late 1992 fueled
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...
opposition to international troops, strengthening support for Aidid’s SNA, which condemned the UN’s perceived
colonial practices.
Somali Islamist factions such as
Al-Itihaad Al-Islamiya also demonstrated hostility to a foreign military presence.
John Drysdale, a prominent advisor hired by the UN for the operation warned that Somalis would widely see a military deployment as ''gumeysi'' (foreign oppression) if it was perceived to be made without their sanction.
The head of UNOSOM I,
Mohammed Sahnoun, was replaced by an
Ismat T. Kittani during November 1992. Kittani immediately adopted a confrontational stance ordered the deployments of UNOSOM troops in politically sensitive areas, sparking a security crisis with local Somali factions. Kittani pushed claims that 80% of all aid shipments were being looted, which was later repeated by the UN Secretariat and the US State Department to justify expanding the scope of the intervention in Somalia.
Alex de Waal observes that though the statistic was treated as fact by the Americans and UN, "its origins are untraceable."
Doctors Without Borders
Doctor, Doctors, The Doctor or The Doctors may refer to:
Titles and occupations
* Physician, a medical practitioner
* Doctor (title), an academic title for the holder of a doctoral-level degree
** Doctorate
** List of doctoral degrees awarded ...
noted that nobody on the ground could seriously claim that such a proportion was not getting through, while staff at various aid agencies operating in Somalia such as
World Food Program, the
Red Cross
The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...
and
CARE
Care may refer to:
Organizations and projects
* CARE (New Zealand), Citizens Association for Racial Equality, a former New Zealand organisation
* CARE (England) West Midlands, Central Accident Resuscitation Emergency team, a team of doctors & ...
contested that real figures were far lower. The head of UNOSOM I troops,
Brigadier-General Imtiaz Shaheen of the Pakistani army, stated in an interview with British journalists that the amount of aid being looted was being exaggerated in order justify expanding the scope of the operation and that estimates of 80% were completely fabricated''.''
Expansion of operation and American military intervention
The United Nations Secretariat believed Somalia represented an ideal candidate for a test case of a UN operation in expanded size and mandate. In the view of some top UNOSOM I commanders, the scope of the famine in Somalia was being exaggerated in order to justify using Somalia as an experiment for 'conflict resolution'.
Rony Brauman, the president of
Doctors Without Borders
Doctor, Doctors, The Doctor or The Doctors may refer to:
Titles and occupations
* Physician, a medical practitioner
* Doctor (title), an academic title for the holder of a doctoral-level degree
** Doctorate
** List of doctoral degrees awarded ...
during the intervention in Somalia, observed of UN Secretary General
Boutros Ghali, "I think he wanted to make Somalia the test case for using muscular intervention to restore order and rebuild states; underneath that design lay his ambition to create a permanent UN intervention force."

The
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
had various motives for military involvement in Somalia. The
US armed forces
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. U.S. federal law names six armed forces: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the Coast Guard. Since 1949, all of the armed forces, except ...
wanted to prove its capability to conduct major '
Operations Other Than War', while the
US State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...
wanted to set a precedent for humanitarian military intervention in the post-
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
era. The ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' reported that, shortly before the collapse of the
Somali Democratic Republic
The Somali Democratic Republic (; , ; ) was a socialist state in Somalia that existed from 1969 to 1991.
Established in October 1969, the Somali Democratic Republic emerged following a 1969 Somali coup d'état, coup d'état led by Major General ...
in 1991, nearly two-thirds of the country had been allocated to American oil giants such as
Conoco
Conoco ( ), formerly known as Continental Oil, is an American Petroleum industry, petroleum brand that is operating under the current ownership of the Phillips 66 Company since 2012 and is headquartered in the Westchase, Houston, Westchase neigh ...
in deals with the government. Some observers in the petroleum industry and East African experts suggested that protecting these concessions played a factor in the decision to launch the operation.
On 3 December 1992 the Security Council unanimously adopted
Resolution 794, authorizing the use of "all necessary means to establish as soon as possible a secure environment for humanitarian relief operations in Somalia". The Security Council urged the Secretary-General and member states to make arrangements for "the unified command and control" of the military forces that would be involved. UNITAF has been considered part of a larger state building initiative in Somalia, serving as the military arm to secure the distribution of humanitarian aid. However, UNITAF cannot be considered a state building initiative due to its specific, limited and palliative aims, which it nonetheless exercised forcefully. The primary objective of UNITAF was security rather than larger institution building initiatives.
Composition

The vast bulk of UNITAF's total personnel strength was provided by the United States (some 25,000 out of a total of 37,000 personnel). Other countries that contributed to UNITAF were
1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment from
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
(January–May 1993),
Bangladesh
Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...
,
Belgium
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
,
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
,
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
(one battalion), Ethiopia,
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
(brigade HQ and one battalion),
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
,
Greece
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
(medical company at Waajid), the
Indian Army
The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...
(brigade HQ at Baidoa and three battalions), Ireland (transport company), Italy, Indonesia, Kuwait, Morocco, elements of
No. 40 Squadron RNZAF from New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and Zimbabwe. The national contingents were co-ordinated and overseen by
U.S. Central Command, however, the relationship between CentCom and the contributing nations varied. There were a few confrontations over the methods and mandates employed by some contingents. For example, the Italian contingent was accused of bribing local militias to maintain peace, whilst the
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion (, also known simply as , "the Legion") is a corps of the French Army created to allow List of militaries that recruit foreigners, foreign nationals into French service. The Legion was founded in 1831 and today consis ...
troops were accused of over-vigorous use of force in disarming militiamen. The Canadian contingent of the operation was known by the Canadian operation name
Operation Deliverance.
United States
Prior to Resolution 794, the United States had approached the UN and offered a significant troop contribution to Somalia, with the caveat that these personnel would not be commanded by the UN. Resolution 794 did not specifically identify the U.S. as being responsible for the future task force, but mentioned "the offer by a Member State described in the Secretary-General's letter to the Council of 29 November 1992 (S/24868) concerning the establishment of an operation to create such a secure environment". Resolution 794 was unanimously adopted by the United Nations Security Council on 3 December 1992, and they welcomed the United States offer to help create a secure environment for humanitarian efforts in Somalia. President
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...
responded to this by initiating Operation Restore Hope on 4 December 1992, under which the United States would assume command in accordance with Resolution 794.
Operation
The operation began on 6 December 1992, when
Navy SEALs
The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the United States Navy's primary special operations force and a component of the United States Naval Special Warfare Command. Among the SEALs' main funct ...
and other units began laying the groundwork for the landing over a period of three days. In the early hours of 8 December 1992, elements of the US
4th Psychological Operations Group attached to the approaching
Marine Expeditionary Unit
A Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU, pronounced as one syllable "" IPA: ) is the smallest Marine air-ground task force, air-ground task force (MAGTF) in the United States Fleet Marine Force.[Mogadishu
Mogadishu, locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital and List of cities in Somalia by population, most populous city of Somalia. The city has served as an important port connecting traders across the Indian Ocean for millennia and has ...]
.
Deployment
On 9 December 1992, American troops began landing on the
Somali coastline at
Mogadishu
Mogadishu, locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital and List of cities in Somalia by population, most populous city of Somalia. The city has served as an important port connecting traders across the Indian Ocean for millennia and has ...
. A total 17,800
US Marines and 10,000
US Army
The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...
infantry were deployed. The
famine in Somalia was already abating as the troops began landing.
Mohamed Farah Aidid, leader of the
Somali National Alliance
The Somali National Alliance (abbreviated SNA) was a major politico-military faction formed on 16 June 1992 by four different rebel groups that had been in opposition to the regime of former President Mohamed Siad Barre. The SNA was among the f ...
(SNA), initially welcomed the operation, reportedly at the urging of his lieutenant
Osman Atto, who had close ties to U.S. embassy officials in
Nairobi
Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...
and the American oil company
Conoco
Conoco ( ), formerly known as Continental Oil, is an American Petroleum industry, petroleum brand that is operating under the current ownership of the Phillips 66 Company since 2012 and is headquartered in the Westchase, Houston, Westchase neigh ...
. Aidid favored a U.S.-led mission over a UN-led one, given his strained relationship with the UN Secretary-General
Boutros-Ghali. Regardless the SNA and other factions lacked the military capability to resist the landings had they wanted to. This non-confrontational stance was reciprocated by the Americans who initially avoided trying to disarm Aidid's faction. American diplomat
Robert B. Oakley and US Marine General
Robert Johnson
Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His singing, guitar playing and songwriting on his landmark 1936 and 1937 recordings have influenced later generations of musicians. Although his r ...
made clear in public statements that the intentions of US troops were 'strictly humanitarian' and that their forces would only use force to protect themselves or aid convoys.
Concurrently, various Somali factions returned to the negotiating table in an attempt to end the civil war. This effort was known as the
Conference on National Reconciliation in Somalia and it resulted in the
Addis Ababa Agreement signed on 27 March 1993. The conference, however, had little result as the civil war continued afterwards.

Many Somalis who would have been otherwise supportive of the operation were antagonized by the behavior of foreign troops. Peacekeepers often displayed a "casual brutality" in encounters with Somalis, particularly American, Italian and Belgian troops who engaged in torture, murder and sexual violence with relative impunity. Testimony from Italian troops later described the routine destruction of Somali property and abuse of detainees, with some Italian soldiers suggesting the death toll was higher than officially acknowledged. Many incidents involving abuses by Belgian troops regarded children
with some soldiers also stating that the official reports regarding killings of Somalis were understated.
Despite this, UNITAF avoided armed conflict with Somali factions due to the careful
rules of engagement created by the head of the operation,
US Marine Lt. Gen.
Robert B. Johnston
Robert Ballantyne Johnston (October 6, 1937 – October 19, 2023) was a United States Marine Corps Lieutenant general (United States), lieutenant general whose last duty assignment was as Commander, United States Marine Corps Forces Command, Mar ...
. Johnston's approach, which focused above all on winning the Somali's public confidence, was lost during the transfer to the far more aggressive
UNOSOM II mandate.
Results
As UNITAF's mandate was to protect the delivery of food and other humanitarian aid, the operation was regarded as a success.
United Nations Secretary-General
The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or UNSECGEN) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the United Nations System#Six principal organs, six principal organs of ...
Boutros Boutros-Ghali
Boutros Boutros-Ghali (14 November 1922 – 16 February 2016) was an Egyptian politician and diplomat who served as the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1992 to 1996. Prior to his appointment as secretary-general, Boutros-Gha ...
determined that the presence of UNITAF troops had a "positive impact on the security situation in Somalia and on the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance." An epidemiological survey determined approximately 10,000 lives had been saved by the military intervention. While UNITAF saw a dramatic increase in the scope of the military intervention, no more lives were saved compared to
UNOSOM I
United Nations Operation in Somalia I (UNOSOM I) was the first part of a United Nations (UN) sponsored effort to provide, facilitate, and secure humanitarian relief in Somalia, as well as to monitor the first UN-brokered ceasefire of the Somal ...
. The primary reason was due to the sharp decline in mortality rates during October 1992, before the large scale deployment of troops. Studies on the intervention noted that UNITAF had the effect of speeding up the famine's conclusion by about a month.

According to an assessment by the
Washington based independent
NGO Refugee Policy Group, only 10,000 to 25,000 lives of the approximately 100,000 rescued by international assistance had been saved by the UNITAF and UNOSOM II interventions, and according to Professor
Alex de Waal the true figure may have been even lower.
Figures like Secretary-General
Boutros-Ghali and American diplomat
Chester Crocker
Chester Arthur Crocker (born October 29, 1941) is an American diplomat and scholar who served as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from June 9, 1981, to April 21, 1989, in the Reagan administration. Crocker, architect of the U.S. p ...
claimed that the intervention saved a quarter of a million Somali lives, a claim which has been disputed by other observers who have noted that there is minimal evidence to suggest that UNITAF had had any significant impact on mortality.
No disarmament of the rivalling factions within Somalia was undertaken.
This meant that the situation stayed stable only for the time UNITAF's overwhelming presence was deterring the fighting. Therefore, the mandate to create a "secure environment" was not achieved in a durable fashion. The
Canadian Airborne Regiment was disbanded due to its conduct at UNITAF that was revealed during an investigation into the
Somalia Affair.
Transition to UNOSOM II
During March 1993, several weeks before UNOSOM II was created, the first UN sponsored Somali peace conference was being held in
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa (; ,) is the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as the regional state of Oromia. With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 census, it is the largest city in the country and the List of cities in Africa b ...
,
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...
. The ''
Conference on National Reconciliation'' consisted of the majority of Somalis factions and leaders. UN Special Representative
Lansana Kouyate of
Guinea
Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...
warned the delegates of the national reconciliation conference that the UN was going to invoke its
Chapter VI powers across the entirety of Somalia unless they came to an agreement by 25 March 1993. The conference finalized an agreement 24 hours past the deadline. On 26 March 1993 UNOSOM II, was established by the Security Council in
Resolution 814, though did not formally take over operations in Somalia until UNITAF was dissolved just over a month later on 4 May 1993.
On 3 May 1993, UNOSOM II officially assumed command, and on 4 May 1993 it assumed responsibility for the operations. Despite UNOSOM II being composed of a coalition of twenty-seven countries, most of the decision makers were still Americans, giving the United States significant control over much of the operation.
Marine Lt. Gen.
Robert B. Johnston
Robert Ballantyne Johnston (October 6, 1937 – October 19, 2023) was a United States Marine Corps Lieutenant general (United States), lieutenant general whose last duty assignment was as Commander, United States Marine Corps Forces Command, Mar ...
, head of UNITAF, would state that although in his view UNITAF had been success US efforts and losses would be in vain if UNOSOM II was also not successful.
UNOSOM II Force Commander
Cevik Bir openly admitted that the critical posts in his headquarters were manned by Americans by May 1993,
and it was observed that very few nations involved had any representation in the UN military command structure.
In addition to this the representative of the
UN Secretary-General
The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or UNSECGEN) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the United Nations System#Six principal organs, six principal organs of ...
in Somalia and head of UNOSOM II, retired US Admiral
Jonathan Howe, staffed his headquarters with twenty-eight US officers in key positions. Months into the operation, following the
5 June 1993 killings of the Pakistanis and the passing of
UNSCR 837, the US would effectively take lead of the mission.
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
UN Department of Peacekeeping: UNOSOM 1
compiled by the U.S. Army Center of Military History
Archived
{{Authority control
Battles involving Botswana
Humanitarian military operations
Military operations involving Australia
Military operations involving Belgium
Military operations involving India
Military operations involving Italy
Military operations involving Malaysia
Military operations involving New Zealand
Military operations involving Pakistan
Military operations involving the United Kingdom
Military operations involving the United States
Pakistan military presence in other countries
Military operations of the Somali Civil War
Somalia–United States relations
United Nations operations in Somalia
United Nations Security Council subsidiary organs
United States Marine Corps in the 20th century
Military history of the Indian Ocean