From: lgsax@igc.apc.org (Lynn Gazis-Sax)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.quaker
Subject: Facts About Somalia
Date: 20 Dec 92 02:05:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1744600055:000:4648
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!lgsax    Dec 19 18:05:00 1992


From: Lynn Gazis-Sax <lgsax>
Subject: Facts About Somalia

Date:         Tue, 8 Dec 1992 15:43:24 PST
From: Richard Childers <rchilder@US.ORACLE.COM>
Subject:      fwd from uus-l
To: Multiple recipients of list QUAKER-L <QUAKER-L@UIUCVMD.BITNET>

From: Jim McCollum <jimmc@ROCHGTE.FIDONET.ORG>
Subject:      Facts About Somalia

Here are some facts about Somalia that some of you may like to have
available as we prepare to send troops there in this massive relief
effort we are now committed to.  Also, in abbreviated form are Gen.
Colin Powell's marching orders to our troops.  This and a previous
post were pulled off a local FidoNet Echo.

                                                       __o
      Lang may your lum reek!                        _ \<._
                                   Jim McCollum     (_)/ (_)
                                   jimmc@rochgte.fidonet.org
                                   FidoNet       1:2613/244


Fri 4 Dec 92  4:36p
By: In*Touch NewsWire Service
To: All
Re: Facts & Figures on Somalia
------------------------------------------------------------------
   Some facts and figures on Somalia:
   ------

   THE LAND: An elbow-shaped, largely desert country wrapped
around Africa's Horn with 246,201 square miles, about the land
area of Texas. It lies on the Indian Ocean coast facing the
Arabian peninsula and is bordered to the north by Djibouti, the
east by Ethiopia and south by Kenya.
   ------

   POPULATION: About 6.5 million people live in the entire
country, approximately one quarter of whom are in the so-called
Somaliland Republic, which seceded last year but has not been
recognized internationally. It comprises Somalia's northern hook,
jutting westward over Ethiopia. Somalia's people are mostly
nomadic and predominantly Sunni Muslim, with a common language and
ethnic origin. They are divided into six major clans, each of
which is divided into numerous sub- and sub-sub-clans.
   ------

   HISTORY: Unified as Somalia in June 1960 after northern British
Somaliland and the southern territory administered by Italy won
independence. Gen. Mohamed Siad Barre seized power in bloodless
1969 coup and set nation on socialist path.  He was backed first
by the Sovit Union, then the United States. Siad Barre was toppled
by the rebel United Somali Congress in January 1991. The country
fell into anarchy, ripped apart by warring clans and devastated by
a widespread drought and famine that killed tens if not hundreds
of thousands.
   ------

   GOVERNMENT: With Siad Barre's ouster, government collapsed.
Somalia has been carved into clan-based fiefdoms. No one rules.
   ------

   ECONOMY: Somalia, already one of the world's poorest countries,
dropped to the bottom of the rung with Siad Barre's ouster and the
collapse of its economy.
   ------

   THE CRISIS: While no one has precise figures, more than 100,000
people are estimated to have died in fighting since 1991,
including at least 30,000 killed or wounded from November to March
in Mogadishu. About 1 million Somalis have fled the country,
including an estimated 600,000 to Ethiopia, 154,000 to Kenya, up
to 100,000 in Djibouti and about 4,000 to Yemen. The United
Nations estimates 1.5 million people are starving in Somalia and
in danger of dying, and that another 4.5 million require food and
other emergency assistance.


Fri 4 Dec 92  4:38p
By: In*Touch NewsWire Service
To: All
Re: Powell Lays Out Somalia Plan
------------------------------------------------------------------

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon Friday released details of its
plan for using 28,150 soldiers, sailors and airmen in Somali to
open safe corridors for delivery of humanitarian relief supplies.

   Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, said
the plan has four phases and is designed to relieve the acute
starvation in Somalia's southern region:

   1. A vanguard Marine expeditionary unit would arrive first and
establish bases at the capital, Mogadishu, and the inland town of
Baidoa, so humanitarian relief convoys and ships can bring in
additional supplies for the starving.

   2. Army forces from the 10th Mountain Division, a light
infantry unit based at Fort Drum, N.Y., would join forces with the
Marines in Baidoa and establish bases at Belet Wen, Oddur and
Gailalassi to the north of the Somali capital.

   3. The operations would then expand into Kismayo, a seaport in
the extreme south of Somalia, and Bardera.

   4. The operation would be handed off to U.N. observer Somalia
forces, with U.S. forces then withdrawing at some unspecified
date.
Newsgroups: soc.religion.quaker