Operation Eastern Exit was the codename given to the military evacuation of the United States embassy in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, in January 1991. In late December 1990, violence quickly enveloped the city as armed militants began clashing with government soldiers. On 1 January 1991, the US Ambassador to Somalia, James Keough Bishop, contacted the Department of State requesting an evacuation of the embassy, which was approved the following day. United States Central Command began planning and mobilizing forces that evening. The initial plan was to evacuate with a military transport plane through the Mogadishu International Airport, but this was later abandoned. A helicopter evacuation via the and was the remaining option.
On the morning of 5 January, a 60-person Marine and Navy SEAL security detail was dispatched from Guam aboard two CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters to secure the embassy and prepare for the main evacuation. The two helicopters returned to Guam with the first 61 evacuees. Throughout the day, foreign diplomats and civilians sought refuge at the embassy. Four waves of five CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters each evacuated the embassy compound shortly after midnight on 6 January. The evacuees were transported to Muscat, Oman, where they disembarked on 11 January. In total, Operation Eastern Exit evacuated 281 (with a 282nd born aboard ship) diplomats and civilians from 30 countries, including 12 heads of missions (eight ambassadors and four chargés d'affaires).
Background
In the late 1980s, there was increasing rebellion against the rule of Somali President Siad Barre, a military dictator who maintained tight control of power and had a record of human rights abuses. By 1990, what began as civil disobedience evolved into a civil war, with several militias organized to overthrow the central government.
In July 1989, the embassy moved to a new, compound, from the previous embassy and James K. Bishop was appointed as the United States' ambassador to Somalia. Ambassador Bishop had significant experience in crisis management at US embassies. In 1967, he was at the US Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon when the Six-Day War erupted. About 3,600 Americans were evacuated in 33 hours; Bishop was one of 26 diplomats and soldiers that remained in the city. As deputy assistant secretary of state for Africa from 1981 to 1987, Bishop chaired several task forces for crises and gained experience in the State Department's operations center as evacuations were carried out during several coups d'etat. During his previous assignment as Ambassador to Liberia (1987–90), Bishop was overseeing the voluntary evacuation of embassy staff and civilians as a civil war in Liberia spread, when he left in March 1990. Soon after returning to Washington to prepare for his new appointment to Somalia, he was appointed to a taskforce to deal with the crisis in Liberia, which included a gradual evacuation of American civilians and a rapid closure of the embassy in August.
On 1 August, before leaving the US to take up his post in Mogadishu, Ambassador Bishop visited United States Central Command—the military command for the Middle East and northeast Africa—where he spent most of the day with its commander, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf. Ambassador Bishop, aware of the ongoing strife, believed "the odds were better than even that we would have to leave Mogadishu under less than favorable circumstances." Ambassador Bishop understood from his past experiences in Beirut and Liberia the importance of being prepared to deal with emergencies and spent the afternoon working with military experts to review the embassy's Emergencies and Evacuation (E&E) plan until he was "satisfied...that [Central Command] realized that it might have to conduct an evacuation from Mogadishu and was prepared to do that." In its analysis of Operation Eastern Exit, the Center for Naval Analyses cited the Ambassador Bishop's previous experience and "clear understanding of his role" in the operation as one of the reasons Operation Eastern Exit went so well.
Hours after Ambassador Bishop's visit to Central Command, Iraq invaded Kuwait. In 1979, the US negotiated access to an airport and port in both Mogadishu and Berbera; because of limited access the US had to locations in the Persian Gulf area, maintaining this access was a main interest for the Mogadishu embassy to pursue as the US mobilized to intervene in Kuwait. Though, the United States did not have any forces nor did it use Somali facilities in support of Operation Desert Shield.
An increasing level of criminal violence prompted Ambassador Bishop to request the voluntary evacuation of dependents (e.g. children and spouses of staff) and non-essential staff in early December, although fighting between the government and the United Somali Congress (a rebel militia) remained no less than about away. The voluntary evacuation later became a mandatory evacuation. By 19 December, the number of official US personnel in the city was reduced from 147 to 37; around the same time, fighting between the government and rebels came within about of Mogadishu.
Collapse of the Barre government
On 30 December, violence escalated "an order of magnitude" as militants entered Mogadishu, which was quickly enveloped by a general state of lawlessness. On 30–31 December, diplomats, including many stationed in offices elsewhere in the city, were collected and housed in the embassy compound, except two volunteers who remained in the embassy's K-7 residential apartments located across Afgoy Road from the embassy. The volunteers in the K-7 building would be needed as look-outs for the embassy compound's main gate. On the morning of 31 December, the defense attaché was nearly killed when his vehicle was sprayed with bullets and that evening, a soldier at a roadblock shot the tires of a vehicle carrying another defense official. Attempts by the US and other nations' diplomats, in particular the Italian embassy, to negotiate a ceasefire for foreigners to leave were unsuccessful. Afgoy Road became a "shooting gallery", preventing those in safe-havens outside the embassy from reaching it. On New Year's Day, the first American civilians began to seek refuge at the embassy.
Ambassador Bishop requested an evacuation of the American community on 1 January, indicating that the evacuation could be with the planned Italian, French, or German evacuation efforts, but preferred an evacuation by the US military. The State Department authorized the evacuation on 2 January and on that day, Ambassador Bishop specifically requested an evacuation by the US military, thereby initiating Operation Eastern Exit. Ambassador Bishop had spent a considerable amount of time discussing contingency plans for evacuation with other diplomatic posts. Ultimately, ten heads of missions—eight ambassadors and two chargés d'affaires—along with their staff sought refuge in the US embassy compound and were evacuated.
Plans, mobilization, and escalating violence Ambassador Bishop had visited Central Command in August 1990, where he worked with military experts to update the embassy's E&E plan. The first notice that an evacuation of the Mogadishu embassy would be needed came on the morning of 1 January, when the top naval commander at Central Command sent a message to his naval operations staff: "Better have Amphib crowd take a look at a helo NEO of Mogadishu! time/distance to get there from Masirah OP area." Following the ambassador's 2 January evacuation request, the commander of Central Command ordered Air Force aircraft to the region, the movement of amphibious ships to Mogadishu, and requested United States Special Operations Command to prepare for a noncombatant evacuation operation.
The initial plan was to evacuate via Mogadishu International Airport. Soon after the evacuation request, the United States Air Force deployed C-130 transport planes and an AC-130, for gunfire support, to Nairobi, Kenya, awaiting clearances to enter Somalia and the ability to safely transfer evacuees from the embassy to the airport. However, the US and other foreign embassies were unable to contact anyone within the government to obtain clearances. It also became apparent that the rebels had an ineffective command-and-control structure, making it impossible to negotiate any ceasefire or guarantee of safe passage. Likewise, government troops faced a command-and-control problem; reports indicated that army units were separating along clan lines, in some cases soldiers shot officers of a different clan when given orders they disagreed with. Thus, it became clear that safe passage to the airport would not be possible. Several other nations also had aircraft mobilized to reach Mogadishu, but faced the same problems of landing and transit of evacuees to the airport.
On 4 January, several incidents, including a couple exchanges of gunfire, suggested that the embassy's security detail was insufficient to hold off armed Somalis until the USS Guam and USS Trenton arrived with their helicopters and Marines, at that time scheduled to arrive on 7 January. The embassy had just six Marine guards, whose job was limited to protecting the chancery. Ambassador Bishop made an urgent request to Washington for two platoons of soldiers to parachute into the embassy to defend it until the ships arrived. The request was denied, but the Ambassador was told that an advance element from the vessels would reach the embassy the following morning.
USS Guam and USS Trenton began transit from the coast of Oman towards Mogadishu at 22:30 (23:30 Oman time) on 2 January. The commander of Amphibious Group 2 (PHIBGRU TWO) had initially proposed a seven-ship Amphibious Task Group, composed of vessels anchored at Masirah Island (off Oman) and Dubai and including four amphibious ships so that the full range of amphibious capabilities would be available for the operation. However, intervention in Kuwait seemed imminent and Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, did not want to divert that many ships from the Persian Gulf (and was mindful of the ongoing extended deployment of Operation Sharp Edge off Liberia), thus the decision to send just two ships. Although the two vessels were selected by mid-afternoon on 2 January, the transfer of some personnel from Dubai to Masirah and a decision to refuel the two ships (again, due to the potential risk of an extended operation like Sharp Edge) delayed departure by about ten hours. Guam and Trenton carried forces from the 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, specifically Charlie Co 1st Battalion 2nd Marines, including a detachment of CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters—the largest helicopters operated by the US military—and two squadrons of CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters.