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


  • BAR Book Forum: Musab Younis’s Book, “On the Scale of the World”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Musab Younis’s Book, “On the Scale of the World”
    16 Aug 2023
    This week’s featured author is Musab Younis. Younis is Senior Lecturer in the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary University of London. His book is On the Scale of the World…
  • RFK, Jr. Exposes His Right-Wing Tendencies Again, This Time On Abortion
    Jacqueline Luqman
    RFK, Jr. Exposes His Right-Wing Tendencies Again, This Time On Abortion
    16 Aug 2023
    Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. made and then tried to walk-back comments which supported banning abortion in some circumstances. But he's stuck with his own words and the supposedly anti-establishment…
  • Peruvian De Facto Minister of Defense Travels to DC Solidifying US Militarization of Country
    Clau O'Brien Moscoso
    Peruvian De Facto Minister of Defense Travels to DC Solidifying US Militarization of Country
    16 Aug 2023
    Peru's coup regime enhances its alliance with the U.S. with visits to Washington and arms supplies to Ukraine.
  • You Can’t Project Power When the World Knows You Are Weak
    Dr.Wilmer J. Leon, III
    You Can’t Project Power When the World Knows You Are Weak
    16 Aug 2023
    Every empire falls and the fantasy of American exceptionalism doesn't exempt the U.S. from inevitable decline. Yet the failing hegemon behaves as though it still controls events, and…
  • Ivory Coast's Role in ECOWAS and the Impact of Its Destabilization of Niger
    Dr. Abdiwahab Sheikh Abdisamad
    Ivory Coast's Role in ECOWAS and the Impact of Its Destabilization of Niger
    16 Aug 2023
    The author explains why the Ivory Coast has joined the U.S. plan to take part in a possible ECOWAS invasion of Niger. There is a long history of antagonism between the two states and Ivory Coast…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us