Somalia, one of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, plunged into civil war after the 1991 ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre, setting off a deadly power struggle that has defied numerous attempts to restore a functional government. The AU has about 5,000 peacekeepers in Mogadishu, short of some 8,000 troops it pledged.
The conflict and recurrent drought has currently left at least 3.2 million -out of the country's 10 million population- in despair.