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


  • More Surveillance Won’t Stop White Supremacy -- It Will Target Activists of Color
    Anoa Changa
    More Surveillance Won’t Stop White Supremacy -- It Will Target Activists of Color
    17 Mar 2021
    Violence from people of color and other marginalized groups – or even simply fear of such violence -- is dealt with immediately and with the harshest of consequences.
  • The Somali Election Impasse in Historical Context
    Abdirahman A. Abdalla
    The Somali Election Impasse in Historical Context
    17 Mar 2021
    Somalia’s current corruptionist comprador bourgeoisie has no independent socio-political base and is therefore totally beholden to Western imperialist interests.
  • Who’s Afraid of Hugo Chávez? Race, Empire, and Chavismo’s Revolutionary Subjectivity
    Lucas M. Koerner 
    Who’s Afraid of Hugo Chávez? Race, Empire, and Chavismo’s Revolutionary Subjectivity
    17 Mar 2021
    What is it about Chávez and the national-popular movement bearing his name that is so threatening to the US Empire to this day?
  • Can We Listen to the Voice of the Haitian People?
    Mireille Fanon Mendes France
    Can We Listen to the Voice of the Haitian People?
    17 Mar 2021
    The West’s treatment of Haiti confirms that white supremacy has still not abandoned its plan to impose a racially racist, violent, capitalist and imperial world order.
  •  Black Agenda Radio for Week of March 15, 2021
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of March 15, 2021
    15 Mar 2021
    Community Control is Best Route to Abolishing Policing As We Know It
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us