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


  • Frantz Fanon
    David Marriott
    BAR Book Forum: David Marriott’s “Whither Fanon?”
    28 Sep 2021
    BAR Book Forum: David Marriott’s “Whither Fanon?” David Marriott
  • 20 years After Durban: Africans and Afro-Descendants Colonized or Emancipated?
    Mireille Fanon Mendes France
    20 years After Durban: Africans and Afro-Descendants Colonized or Emancipated?
    26 Sep 2021
    The 20th anniversary of the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) is an opportunity to analyze the state of African descended people.
  • The Resignation of Biden’s Special Envoy to Haiti Once Again Exposes the White Supremacist Foundations of U.S. Foreign Policy, No Matter Which Party Is In Charge
    Black Alliance For Peace
    The Resignation of Biden’s Special Envoy to Haiti Once Again Exposes the White Supremacist Foundations of U.S. Foreign Policy, No Matter Which Party Is In Charge
    26 Sep 2021
    The blatant racism of Biden's Haiti policies—in both controlling Haiti’s governance and the illegal and inhuman abuses of Haitian asylum seekers—was too much even for his special envo
  • A Racial Reckoning at Doctors Without Borders
    Mara Kardas-Nelson, Ngozi Cole, Sean Campbell
    A Racial Reckoning at Doctors Without Borders
    26 Sep 2021
    The Nobel Peace Prize winning organization Doctors Without Borders has been accused of racist policies which privilege so-called ex-pat workers from North America and Europe over local medical
  • Abusing Migrants While on Horseback Fits With the Border Patrol's Long History of Brutality
    Sarah Turberville, Chris Rickerd
    Abusing Migrants While on Horseback Fits With the Border Patrol's Long History of Brutality
    26 Sep 2021
    Such cruelty warrants a congressional investigation—not only into the specific actions in Del Rio but, more importantly, into systemic problems within Border Patrol that allow such abusive cond
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us