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


  • Luke Goldstein , Lucy Dean Stockton
    Corporations Invested In Lawsuits Before Venezuela Invasion
    07 Jan 2026
    Trump’s removal of President Nicolas Maduro could tilt international court proceedings and provide a windfall to corporate plaintiffs.
  • Pavan Kulkarni
    The war in Sudan is “between two wings of a comprador parasitic capitalist class”
    07 Jan 2026
    Sudan's war is a conflict within the comprador elite, cultivated by external powers to plunder the nation's resources after destroying a popular revolution.
  • Yusleny Morales , Orinoco Tribune
    Venezuela: In Mass Demonstrations, the People Demand Return of President Maduro
    07 Jan 2026
    Mass demonstrations in Caracas and throughout Venezuela are a rejection of U.S. regime change. The people are united in demanding the return of President Maduro from a U.S. kidnapping.
  • Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
    Venezuela Declares State of Emergency, Calls for International Solidarity in Official Communiqué
    07 Jan 2026
    Venezuela's statement categorically denounces U.S. action as criminal aggression, framing the nation's resistance as a legitimate defense of sovereignty against imperialism.
  • Struggle La Lucha
    Cuba Reports 32 Fighters Killed in U.S. Attack on Venezuela
    07 Jan 2026
    In Venezuela and around the world Cuba is in the forefront of defending revolution.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us