The United Nations later arranged a US-led intervention, with a mandate to engage in state building and encourage the militias to share power and begin to form a new government.

President George H. W. Bush sent United States Marines into Somalia in December 1992 as part of a UN effort to secure transportation routes to deliver relief and food supplies, which had been disrupted by local militias.

[1] Uninterested in sharing power, Mohamed Farrah Aidid began to regard the ongoing UN mission as hostile and ambushed a peacekeeping convoy in June 1993, killing 24 Pakistani soldiers.

The UN mission's commander, U.S. Admiral Jonathan Howe, declared Aidid an outlaw, and the faction leader's forces and supporters subsequently began targeting the officer.

Bowden's narrative was generally praised, particularly his efforts at contextualizing the local and international politics and explaining how the peacekeeping mission devolved into armed conflict, later termed the "Mogadishu Line".

[1] Additionally, the piece remarked how Bowden simultaneously manages to capture the siege mentality felt by both civilians and the US soldiers, as well as the broad sentiment among many residents that the Rangers were to blame for the majority of the battle casualties.