PLoS Med 6 8 : e This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Recurrent civil conflict has blocked progress toward improving health in Somalia.
Violent power struggles between political factions followed the breakdown of the government in Large numbers of civilians were displaced and warlords diverted food aid. In response, a United States-led military intervention attempted to facilitate access for humanitarian relief.
While armed forces clashed in Mogadishu, food distribution was disrupted and famine continued in the south. United Nations UN peacekeepers followed but were unable to restore order. Warfare erupted again in between the transitional government and insurgents in the southern and central regions, with pockets in Baidoa and Mogadishu under government control [2]. Ethiopian troops entered to quell threats to the border and reinstate the government.
UN and African Union peacekeepers also arrived, but were declared to be enemies of the Islamist movement [3]. From to , Somalia surpassed Sudan, Afghanistan, and Iraq in reports of attacks against aid workers [4]. The election of a new president and reformulation of parliament in brings renewed optimism for stabilization. Yet Somalia remains a fragmented region consisting of two effectively independent states Puntland and Somaliland , a small area governed by transitional authorities and the greater part overseen by Islamist groups.
