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

  • ESSAY: Labor, Neoliberalism, and the 2004 Coup in Haiti, Jeb Sprague, 2008
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Labor, Neoliberalism, and the 2004 Coup in Haiti, Jeb Sprague, 2008
    07 Dec 2022
    What role did labor play in the 2004 coup in Haiti? A 2008 essay illuminates the convergence of labor politics, neoliberal policy, and imperial malfeasance.
  • Unbelievable
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Unbelievable
    07 Dec 2022
    Unbelievable
  • The Crisis of Western Imperialism and the Imperative of War and Repression
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    The Crisis of Western Imperialism and the Imperative of War and Repression
    07 Dec 2022
    The world as we know it must change. Humanity cannot survive under imperialist and capitalist structures.
  • BAR Book Forum: Stacy J. Lettman’s Book, “The Slave Sublime”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Stacy J. Lettman’s Book, “The Slave Sublime”
    07 Dec 2022
    This week’s featured author is Stacy J. Lettman. Lettman is an Assistant Professor of English at Florida Atlantic University. Her book is The Slave Sublime The Language of Violence in Caribbean…
  • BAR Book Forum: Jean-Thomas Tremblay’s Book, “Breathing Aesthetics”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Jean-Thomas Tremblay’s Book, “Breathing Aesthetics”
    07 Dec 2022
    This week’s featured author is Jean-Thomas Tremblay. Tremblay is Assistant Professor of Environmental Humanities in the Department of Humanities at York University. Their book is Breathing Aesthetics.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us