Somalia


1977-1978:

Amid ongoing juggling between superpowers the recently acquired US client in Somalia launches an attack against the Soviet client in Ethiopia. Soviet and Cuban military aid to Ethiopia amidst the foreign attack apparently demonstrated another rising wave of "Soviet aggression", though Soviet support for brutal regimes in the region by then was old hat. [1]

1992-1994:

Africa's worst drought of the century occurrs in 1992, and, coupled with the devastation of civil war, Somalia is plunged into a severe famine that kills 300,000. U.S. troops are sent in to protect the delivery of food in Dec. 1992, and in May 1993 the UN takes control of the relief efforts from the U.S. The warlord Mohamed Farah Aidid ambushes UN troops and drags American bodies through the streets, causing an about-face in U.S. willingness to involve itself in the fate of this lawless country. The last of the U.S. troops departs in late March, leaving 19,000 UN troops behind. [1] [2]