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
šŸ–Øļø 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


  • The Movement Sorely Misses Glen Ford
    Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
    The Movement Sorely Misses Glen Ford
    03 Aug 2022
    Remembering Glen Ford and all that he taught us.
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Fraternal fist-bump between gangstas—Fugget about it… (For Allen Ginsberg, my other favorite ā€˜Jersey Boy’)
    03 Aug 2022
    Fraternal fist-bump between gangstas—Fugget about it… (For Allen Ginsberg, my other favorite ā€˜Jersey Boy’)
  • Black Alliance For Peace
    The Black Alliance for Peace Condemns FBI Attack on the African People’s Socialist Party
    03 Aug 2022
  • ā€˜Tools of Russia’: FBI Raid on Black Political Party Seen as Part of ā€˜Black Scare/Red Scare’ in United States
    Julie Varughese
    ā€˜Tools of Russia’: FBI Raid on Black Political Party Seen as Part of ā€˜Black Scare/Red Scare’ in United States
    03 Aug 2022
    Black political organizations condemne
  • BAR Book Forum: Jamil W. Drake’s ā€œTo Know the Soul of a Peopleā€
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Jamil W. Drake’s ā€œTo Know the Soul of a Peopleā€
    03 Aug 2022
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us