Strength: 36 - Movement Control Unit (MovCon)
Augmentation: 5 pers - Advance party for HQ UNOSOM II arrive in Mar 1993
Total Pers: 41 (ASC 1 + 1 1/2)
AO: Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti
In late 1990 and throughout 1991, Somalia collapsed into clan warfare and then civil war. As 1992 progressed the civil war worsened and the country effectively ceased to function as an organised nation state. Mass starvation and anarchy followed.
Beginning tentatively in September 1992, the UN stepped in to protect the delivery of humanitarian assistance and to reconstitute Somalia as a functioning political, social and economic entity.
On 20 October 1992, the ADF MovCon Unit (MCU) arrived in Somalia to assist UNOSOM I cope with the influx of assigned forces. The original 36 members of MovCon and the advance party of 5 pers transitioned to UNOSOM II. The 36 MovCon pers were repatriated to Australia on 8 Jul 1993 and replaced by ASC 2. UNOSOM I was not replaced by UNITAF. They were parallel operations.