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

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


  • Richard Medhurst
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Richard Medhurst Arrested and Facing Terrorism Act Charges
    30 Aug 2024
    Richard Medhurst joins us to discuss his recent arrest under the Terrorism Act for his journalism, his case, and the implications of prosecuting journalists.
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    "Democracies" Attack Journalism as They Attack Democracy Itself
    28 Aug 2024
    What does democracy mean if elections are ignored and journalists are charged as criminals? That is the case today, as western countries descend into crises of their own making and are more blatant…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    REPORT: “The People Who Were Left to Die:” Horrors Suffered by Orleans Parish Prisoners in Wake of Katrina, ACLU, 2006
    28 Aug 2024
    Remembering the terrible plight of the incarcerated during Hurricane Katrina.
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Protests for Palestine at the DNC
    28 Aug 2024
    DNC protest organizers kept Democrats’ responsibility for the Gaza genocide in the news from October to August.
  • Abayomi Azikiwe, Black Agenda Report Contributor
    Africa at the Center of Another Global Health Emergency
    28 Aug 2024
    EVD, COVID-19 and now Mpox further reveal how dependency is dangerous and deadly.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us