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


  • BAR Book Forum: Tryon Woods’ “Blackhood Against the Police Power”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Tryon Woods’ “Blackhood Against the Police Power”
    16 Oct 2019
    The suppression of black thought predates the dawn of the racial slave trade. “Policing is not what we think it is.”
  • The UAW Strike, Blacks, Unions, and Capitalism
    Ken Morgan
    The UAW Strike, Blacks, Unions, and Capitalism
    16 Oct 2019
    The current strike is driven by gross inequalities in earnings among workers, as well as between labor and management.
  • Russian Pride and US Exceptionalism
    Riva Enteen
    Russian Pride and US Exceptionalism
    16 Oct 2019
    Russians are keenly aware of the non-stop propaganda campaign waged against their country by the US government and media.
  • Hurricanes and Other Storms That Uprooted a People
    Eusi Kwayana
    Hurricanes and Other Storms That Uprooted a People
    16 Oct 2019
    The majority of residents in the hurricane-prone countries of the Caribbean are there as a result of a specific centuries-long crime wave, known as the Atlantic Slave Trade.
  • Justice for Atatiana, Abolish Police Domestic Terrorism
    Sikivu Hutchinson
    Justice for Atatiana, Abolish Police Domestic Terrorism
    16 Oct 2019
     Terror in blue: a white cop shoots through a window to kill a young Black woman playing video games with her nephew.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us