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: Cord Whitaker’s “Black Metaphors”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Cord Whitaker’s “Black Metaphors”
    09 Oct 2019
    Whites’ fear of and oppression and violence toward blacks was born in the Middle Ages.
  • Politicians Agree: Any White Cop Can Kill a Black Man
    Don Fitz
    Politicians Agree: Any White Cop Can Kill a Black Man
    09 Oct 2019
    Racist barbarity is on the march, with Missouri’s men and women in blue in the vanguard.
  • “The Necessity Defense”—Why I’m Not Sorry for Antifa 
    Anthony Rogers-Wright
    “The Necessity Defense”—Why I’m Not Sorry for Antifa 
    09 Oct 2019
    You can’t build long-term power by letting white supremacists, nor the government, harm and kill people with impunity.
  • Black Agenda Report’s 13th Anniversary: An Evening of Information and Inspiration for Liberation, and a Tribute to Co-Founder Bruce Dixon
    by BAR Staff
    Black Agenda Report’s 13th Anniversary: An Evening of Information and Inspiration for Liberation, and a Tribute to Co-Founder Bruce Dixon
    09 Oct 2019
    6p to 9p on Saturday, October 26 at the People’s Forum, 320 West 37th Street, New York City.
  • Building a Solidarity Economy in Jackson, Mississippi
    Cheree Franco
    Building a Solidarity Economy in Jackson, Mississippi
    09 Oct 2019
    A project for cooperative economic democracy in the Deep South seeks to break free from big capital’s “value chains.”
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us