MOGADISHU,SOMALIA: Young rifle-toting Somalis watched warily Monday as the first armed U.N. soldiers arrived in Mogadishu, the vanguard of a 500-strong force to guard humanitarian relief shipments in a starving nation,
The 40 Pakistani troops arrived amid fears that their presence could trigger new violence in a capital already devastated by civil war and interclan fighting.
The U.N. Security Council has authorized sending 3,500 armed troops to Somalia, but only the initial force of 500 Pakistanis has been approved by the country’s main warlord, Gen, Mohamed Farrah Aidid.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 25, 1992
