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: Khary Polk’s “Contagions of Empire”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Khary Polk’s “Contagions of Empire”
    06 Jan 2021
    Black and brown volunteers were considered both “essential” and “dispensable” in past disease-ridden US conflicts, just as they are in today’s Covid crisis.
  • BAR Book Forum: Luke de Noronha’s “Deporting Black Britons”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Luke de Noronha’s “Deporting Black Britons”
    06 Jan 2021
    Immigrants that moved to Britain as children were deported to Jamaica as “foreign criminals.”
  • Caste Does Not Explain Race
    Charisse Burden-Stelly, PhD
    Caste Does Not Explain Race
    06 Jan 2021
    The celebration of Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste reflects the continued priority of elite preferences over the needs and struggles of ordinary people.
  • Freddie Gray and Why the Wealth of Sports Franchises Matter
    Gustavus Griffin
    Freddie Gray and Why the Wealth of Sports Franchises Matter
    06 Jan 2021
    A significant portion of sports franchise wealth can be traced directly to the oppression and displacement of Black and Brown bodies.
  • How COVID-19 Hollowed Out a Generation of Young Black Men
    Akilah Johnson and Nina Martin
    How COVID-19 Hollowed Out a Generation of Young Black Men
    06 Jan 2021
    To understand why COVID-19 killed so many young Black men, you need to know the legend of John Henry. “Covid-19 is a new gear in an old machine.”
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us