US ambassador wasted $1B in Somalia and is now funding a coup

Somalia descended into state failure in 1991, and famine quickly followed as warlords fought over the remnants of the country’s infrastructure. Television photos of starving children motivated the George H.W. Bush administration to provide aid and assistance. However, rather than rescue Somalis, humanitarian intervention ended up encouraging both warlords and venal politicians to fight over the assistance or to use it to bolster patronage or deny food and assistance to their political rivals.

While the Clinton administration abandoned Somalia after the "Black Hawk Down" episode, the United States has reengaged Somalia over the past decade. John Kerry became the first secretary of state in decades to visit Mogadishu when, in 2015, he landed and held meetings at the international airport, which serves as Somalia’s “green zone.”

The international community has doubled down on a plan to rebuild a Somali government, creating a timeline to one-man, one-vote popular elections that are set to occur this year, the first time Somalia would have such elections in more than a half-century.

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