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


  • What I Fear About University Actions in the Context of Black
    P. Khalil Saucier
    What I Fear About University Actions in the Context of Black Lives Matter 
    19 Aug 2020
    White folks at the university decided to set things right on race – without consulting Africana Studies.
  • Burundi to Demand Colonial Reparations From Germany and Belgium  
    Deutsche Welle
    Burundi to Demand Colonial Reparations From Germany and Belgium  
    19 Aug 2020
    The East African country is a former German colony and lived under Belgian rule until gaining independence almost 60 years ago. 
  • The NYPD Is Withholding Evidence From Investigations Into Police Abuse
    Eric Umansky and Mollie Simon
    The NYPD Is Withholding Evidence From Investigations Into Police Abuse
    19 Aug 2020
    The NYPD has regularly failed to turn over key records and videos to police abuse investigators at New York’s Civilian Complaint Review Board. “
  • Kamala Harris: Class Struggle and the Illusion of Identity in Capitalism / Photo: Kamala Harris with her Jamaican father, Prof. Donald Harris 
    Ahjamu Umi
    Kamala Harris: Class Struggle and the Illusion of Identity in Capitalism
    19 Aug 2020
    Some Africans in America identify with people like Harris because THEY see their class interests, as she does, as being intertwined with the interests of the American capitalist system.
  • Black Agenda Radio for Week of August 17, 2020
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of August 17, 2020
    18 Aug 2020
    You Can’t Understand Capitalism Without Race
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us