FOR ALL THAT WAS HAPPENING just then in Mogadishu, as Third World, or more pertinently, African conflicts go, there were a number of significant firsts for this so-called Somali peacekeeping force. In fact, apart from the Americans and, to a lesser extent, some of the European countries, it was a presence-under-duress, much like Darfur and the Congo today for those involved in still more horrific debacles.
Women played a significant role throughout the Somali campaign. Often under threat in an Islamic community that sometimes regards females as inferior chattels, they served in many capacities. They did duty as helicopter pilots – both in gunships as well as at the controls of medevac aircraft – and as members of British air and ground crews, Australian military police and convoy escorts.
Additionally, there were female Scandinavian and Canadian flight engineers, medical personnel, health specialists, drivers, general duty soldiers, guards, and the rest, and all these women played sterling roles in keeping the wheels of a fairly extended military operation oiled. In American military uniforms still more women performed all these duties and more. In fact, while there were quite a few sceptics to start with, even among some of the developed countries, the women soon proved to be every bit as competent as the men with whom they were deployed.
Somalia was also the first conflict in which both aid personnel and the media took the first tentative steps either to arm themselves demonstrably or, at very least in order to stay alive, acquire weapons for guards who were hired for their protection. While there were critics who were opposed to these actions and very vocally condemned them, they simply weren’t where it was all happening. For a start, from their comfortable offices in Europe, North America and elsewhere, they couldn’t even begin to appreciate the serious threats that some of these people faced.