Africa
The Clinton administration also inherited a situation in Africa. President Bush had dispatched American troops to Somalia to distribute food to millions of people starving as a result of civil war. The soldiers had been prepared for a humanitarian mission, but the situation quickly escalated.
Two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down, 18 soldiers were killed, dozens wounded, and the bodies of the dead desecrated in the streets. Clinton increased American troop presence, attempting to keep peace and track down a warlord responsible for the chaos. But in the face of significant political opposition, Clinton finally withdrew all U.S. forces in March 1994.
This unsuccessful intervention was the backdrop for the administration's hesitation to act in Rwanda, where a bloody civil war broke out the following month. Over a three-month period in the spring of 1994, the majority Hutu tribe massacred 800,000 minority Tutsis and their supporters. Several years later, Clinton remarked that his refusal to intervene was among his biggest regrets as president.