Humanitarian· Somalia Intervention (Op RESTORE HOPE)
Op PROVIDE RELIEF
Operation Provide Relief was the American military's first response to the Somali famine, an airlift operation that delivered desperately needed food and supplies into Somalia and the surrounding region before the larger ground intervention.
Marines and other forces supported the effort, which flew thousands of tons of relief supplies into the stricken country in an attempt to break the famine that was killing Somalis by the hundreds of thousands amid the collapse of the state. The airlift moved enormous quantities of aid, but it became clear that delivering food by air was not enough, since armed factions and bandits looted the supplies and prevented them from reaching the starving population. The limitations of Provide Relief demonstrated that securing the relief effort on the ground would require a military intervention, setting the stage for the larger operation that followed. It was the humanitarian prelude to the Marine-led intervention in Somalia, an effort to save lives that proved insufficient against the chaos.
Record no. 815