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

Israel and Somaliland
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
U.S. and Israeli Interference in Somalia, Eritrea, and Ethiopia
25 September 2026
Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African Newswire, discusses Israeli recognitio
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 Invention of Ibram X Kendi and the Ideological Crises of Our Time
    Anthony Monteiro
    The Invention of Ibram X Kendi and the Ideological Crises of Our Time
    02 Sep 2020
    Rich white capitalists may be donating millions to Black Lives Matter, but they’re also funding and praising nonsense like Kendi’s babblings on race and capitalism.
  • Letters from Our Readers
    Jahan Choudhry, BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers
    02 Sep 2020
    This week the Democratic Party presidential ticket was on your minds.
  • BAR Book Forum: “Black Study and Abolition”
    Asha Noor
    BAR Book Forum: “Black Study and Abolition”
    02 Sep 2020
    An abolitionist frame of thought is a rebirth, a spiritual process, a painful undertaking, and an ancestral conjuring for Black and brown people.
  • BAR Book Forum: Vicky Osterweil’s “In Defense of Looting”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Vicky Osterweil’s “In Defense of Looting”
    02 Sep 2020
    Looting and rioting appear as immediately effective tactics in the struggle against whiteness, property and the police.
  • US Facilitates Arms for Killer Cops and Criminals in Haiti
    Jake Johnson
    US Facilitates Arms for Killer Cops and Criminals in Haiti
    02 Sep 2020
    Weapons are flowing to pro-regime gangsters suspected of assassinating opponents of the US-backed regime.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us