Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

The Known Unknowns of the Secret US Drone War in Somalia
This Is Hell
06 Mar 2019
🖨️ Print Article

US troops landed in oil-rich Somalia in 1992 and never really left. Over the years some have been replaced with drones and mercenary contractors, but Americans still prop up their version of a Somali government, headed by a US citizen whose writ doesn't go much beyond the capital. Obama bombed Somalia regularly, but under Trump the number of drone strikes have tripled, killing unknown numbers of Africans and terrorizing large swaths of the countryside. The US government doesn't even reveal which agency is conducting many of the bombing strikes, and next to no reporting on the long war in Somalia appears in the US press or broadcast media.

ThisIsHell host Chuck Mertz interviews Mogadishu based journalist Amanda Sperber. Amanda wrote the article "Inside the Secretive US Air Campaign In Somalia" for The Nation: www.thenation.com/article/somalia-…et-air-campaign/

This interview was originally broadcasted by our friends at ThisISHell.com on Saturday February 16, 2019.

Somalia
drone warfare

Related Podcasts

Israel and Somaliland
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
U.S. and Israeli Interference in Somalia, Eritrea, and Ethiopia
25 September 2026
Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African Newswire, discusses Israeli recognitio
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Israel's Recognition of Somaliland Destabilizes the Horn of Africa
09 January 2026
Israel is the first and only nation to recognize the Somaliland region of Somalia as an independent state.
Map of the Horn of Africa
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Trump Administration Continues U.S. Destabilization of Somalia
21 February 2025
Abayomi Azikiwe, is the editor of Pan-African Newswire.

More Stories


  • Chicago Mayor Lightfoot’s Coronavirus Threats and Government Incapacity to Handle a Pandemic
    Stansfield Smith
    Chicago Mayor Lightfoot’s Coronavirus Threats and Government Incapacity to Handle a Pandemic
    13 May 2020
    The city’s Black mayor threatened Black house partyers with arrest, but ignored 500 un-masked white people protesting the Covid-19 lock-down.
  • Black Agenda Radio for Week of May 11, 2020
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of May 11, 2020
    11 May 2020
    Biden’s “Lift Every Voice” Proposal Appeals to Black Misleaders
  • “Scent of Africa” Marketed to “Afropolitans”
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    “Scent of Africa” Marketed to “Afropolitans”
    11 May 2020
    Fifty years after most African nations won nominal independence, ad agencies are marketing upscale products like the perfume “Scent of Africa” to so-called “Afropolitans,” a cohort defined by 
  • US Systemic Collapse is “Total”
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    US Systemic Collapse is “Total”
    11 May 2020
    The current meltdown is “a total crisis of the system” in all its economic, social and political aspects, said Duboisian scholar Dr Anthony Monteiro.
  • Biden’s “Lift Every Voice” Proposal Appeals to Black Misleaders
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Biden’s “Lift Every Voice” Proposal Appeals to Black Misleaders
    11 May 2020
    Black Alliance for Peace national organizer Ajamu Baraka said de facto Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s “Lift Every Voice” plan for Black America “assumes th
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us