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


  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Defending a Non-Existent International Law
    30 Sep 2026
    The Hague Group’s goal is to “. . . take coordinated legal and diplomatic measures against Israel’s violations of international law.” But international law was never a reality.
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    LETTER: “We See Preparations for a Direct Military Intervention by the United States and Its Allies,” Fidel Castro, 1990
    30 Sep 2026
    “I believe that the Movement of Nonaligned Countries…can buttress the united will of the Arab nation and help it to prevail against intervention and aggression.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Don’t Believe the Hype: Revolutionary Eritrea Sustains Sovereignty Over Its Red Sea Coast
    30 Sep 2026
    There is no evidence that Eritrea has surrendered its Red Sea Coast in exchange for relief from US sanctions.
  • Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    U.S. Liberal Media Literacy Guide: “This Isn’t Who We Are”
    30 Sep 2026
    The liberal news media treat U.S. violence and oppression as aberrations from the country's founding ideals rather than expressions of its fundamental character as a settler colony, empire,…
  • Mark P. Fancher
    Is It Bad News That U.S. Drones Will Be Pulled Out of Africa?
    30 Sep 2026
    The U.S. relocation of MQ-9 Reaper drones from Africa to Latin America is not a drawdown of imperial aggression but a strategic reallocation, with the drones likely to be used against Cuba, Venezuela…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us