BBC BBC.

BBC.

Hello and welcome to the Witness podcast with me Alex Last.

And today we go back to October 1993 when the United States launched a disastrous raid against the forces of the Somali warlord General Mohammed Farahade, an operation which changed American policy in Africa was made

famous by the film Black Hawk Down. What I remember is people were lying on the streets, even including Americans.

I knew Somali people will pay very, very high price because of what happened.

In 1993, the United States military was leading a UN mission to end a humanitarian crisis in Somalia,

a country devastated by civil war and famine.

Somali writer Abdulaziz Ali Ibrahim, known as Hildeban, was then working with the

UN in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Many people were dying.

That was the reason why the United Nations and the Americans decided to intervene by force to deliver food.

General Mohammed Farah I did was the most powerful warlord in Somalia. He wanted to be a

president and he believed he is the right man. General Idid's militia

would not be disarmed and after his militia killed 24

UN peacekeepers Ided was declared a wanted man. But in the hunt for Ided and his

lieutenants the American-led UN force killed scores of Somalies,

and anger was rising.

But the operations did not stop, and one Sunday afternoon October 3rd 1993 US forces mounted a raid

into the heart of IDD controlled territory in Mogadishu.

When it was confirmed that I did generalists and supporters and allies were meeting,

so Americans decided to come and arrest them.

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