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


  • US Legally Owes Nicaragua Reparations, But Still Refuses to Honor 1986 International Court of Justice Ruling
    Ben Norton
    US Legally Owes Nicaragua Reparations, But Still Refuses to Honor 1986 International Court of Justice Ruling
    05 Jul 2023
    37 years after a 1986 International Court of Justice ruling, the United States still refuses to pay Nicaragua the reparations it legally owes. Today, the Nicaraguan government is demanding that the…
  • Russo-Ukrainian War: The Wagner Uprising
    Big Serge
    Russo-Ukrainian War: The Wagner Uprising
    05 Jul 2023
    Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Private Military Company, openly denounced the Russian Ministry of Defense and declared a march on Moscow.
  • Black Agenda Radio June 30, 2023
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio June 30, 2023
    30 Jun 2023
    Canada Day celebrations in a settler colonial state and removing Cuba from the "State Sponsor of Terrorism" list.
  • Settler Colonial Racism on Canada Day
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Settler Colonial Racism on Canada Day
    30 Jun 2023
    El Jones is a poet, journalist, professor and activist in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
  • Activists Demand the US Take Cuba #OffTheList of "State Sponsors of Terrorism"
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Activists Demand the US Take Cuba #OffTheList of "State Sponsors of Terrorism"
    30 Jun 2023
    Shaquille Fontenot is a co-chair of the National Network on Cuba and a co-founder of the Low Country Action Committee in Charleston, South Carolina.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us