Efforts to aid them often led to gun battles ( Blackhawk down).Somalia was the best example of a failed state a territory with essentially no national government.
What are nations and states A nation is a population with a certain sense of it self a cohesiveness a shared history and culture and often (but not always) a common language A state is a government structure usually sovereign and powerful enough to enforce its writ (Notice that here we use state in its original sense the 50 U.S. states are not states in this sense of the word.) With the addition of South Sudan in 2011 there are 194 states in the world
Which came first states or nations Many suppose nations did but in most cases states created their nations. The Zulus of South Africa for example are an artificially created nation put together from many clans and tribes two centuries ago by a powerful warrior shaka paris united many regions mostly by the sword to create France and inculcated Frenchness by education language and centralized administration .The French nation is an artificial creation of the French state. The United States was put together by a few men in Philadelphia from 13 colonies. While assimilating tens of millions of immigrants the United States developed a sense of nationhood based largely on the ideals of its founding documents. Nations do not fall from heaven but and created by human craftsmanship of varying quality